Who You Are and What You Could Have Been
by Smthng2B
Summary: AU 3x21. After a thousand years of searching for some semblance of real love, Klaus finds it with this girl, her friendly smile and genuine kindness captivating him the moment he met her whether he admitted it or not. Klaus/OC Rated for language, violence and sexual situations in later chapters.
1. Part 1: Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing, just playing with Klaus because he's sexy. Lyrics belong to Sam the Sham, The Kinks, and Frankie Vallie.

**A/N: **My first Klaus story, got this plot bunny back in April and didn't think that it would hold my attention for long but now I'm _actually_ posting it! This is unbeta-ed but if anyone wants to beta the rest of the story (only 7 chapters) which I'm just putting the finishing touches on, feel free to pm me. Also on Livejournal, same username.

**Who You Are and What You Could Have Been**

**Part 1: ****Chapter 1**

_I'm gonna keep my sheep suit on_

_Until I'm sure that you've been shown _

_That I can be trusted walking with you alone_

Klaus is upset._ Not that he would admit it._

Sure they managed to desiccate the history teacher (_everything should be set right_) but in the struggle to subdue him, Elena somehow got a hold of the white oak stake (_not right_) and all terms for negotiation shifted in her favor as a result. He left that night, appeasing the truce, with his hybrids on his heels all except Tyler (_part of the deal_). In return Elena promised to send him a pint of her blood every few months so long as he stays out of her life and Mystic Falls.

_It was the only option he had._

On his way out of town, Klaus stopped by Caroline's in hopes of wooing her away, only to hear her and Tyler already celebrating his departure from their lives, loudly from her bedroom (_but it could have just been his exceptional hearing)._

He left a hybrid's head on the bloodstained porch for her to find in the morning.

Rebekah, having already left him in that godforsaken hell that is Mystic Falls Virginia, met up with Kol in a far away country that had long since been renamed from the last time they were there. Klaus received a text from Kol telling him that Rebekah was with him and when Klaus tried to call back the phone had been disconnected.

He pretends not to care _(he would not be like Mikael) _and he has his hybrids now so he is never alone.

_But he is. _

Now when Klaus is upset, he eats pretty little blondes. On his way up the eastern seaboard to find Elijah in New York, he's gone through quite a few but he's not sure why this one caught his attention as she walks into the grocery store talking on her cell phone.

It could have possibly been her hair. _The same shade as Rebekah's. _

The way she walked, maybe. _Her ass swung just so like Caroline. _

Perhaps it was her voice. _Cold and imposing like Esther's._

Klaus follows her into the busy little store and grabs a basket out of a man's hand as he passes, ignoring the shouts of protest. The handle is cold and unfamiliar in his grip but that's the last thing on his mind.

_He imagines her hair twisted around his fist as he fucks her from behind. _

_Her naked legs as she runs away from him, thinking she even has a chance. _

_Her screams dying as he rips out her throat with his teeth-_

Klaus stops short when he catches the tail end of a wild musky scent, causing an old woman to run into the back of him with a shopping cart _(doing more damage to the cart than him). _

_Werewolf. _

Klaus ignores the commotion around him as people stop to help the woman up. He spots the source of the faint scent at the other end of the aisle, her back to him as she reads labels in the refrigerated section. He pushes past the people around him, in their search of an apology for the old woman.

Her jeans do not fit her right and the tank top is far too tight across her back for his liking. _He could change that. _Her hair is long and wavy (_like Katerina's)_ but more of a rusty brown. _He would not change that._

The girl turns and sets a gallon of milk in the shopping cart ahead of her as he approaches. Klaus stops short. _Again. _She isn't the werewolf, the baby inside her is, he can tell now that the scent permeates _through_ her not from her. Oddly though, she does not smell_ of_ werewolf.

She gives him a friendly smile as she pushes the cart further down the aisle to look at the eggs. She is quite plain average looking really, no makeup or perfume to cloud his senses, there is nothing remarkable except her smile. _All warmth and no inhibitions._

Klaus stands in the middle of the aisle for a full minute watching her compare the WIC voucher in her hand to a carton of eggs. Thoughts he hadn't had since before he was turned (_having a family, a baby_) flash through his mind. He quickly pushes them aside and instead imagines a friend, better yet a child he can raise to be just like him.

"Boy or girl?" Klaus finds himself asking as he stands beside her, the blonde he was after completely forgotten. Her hand instantly goes to her belly as she smiles.

"Boy. That's not an accent you hear every day." _A boy_.

Klaus grins but says nothing until he motions to her large belly. "Soon?"

"No, a few more weeks 'till I pop. I'm not quite a waddling duck yet." She laughs trying to hide her frustration but it shines through when she shoves the shopping guide into her purse.

"Problems?"

"How'd you guess?" she softens the sarcastic comment with a warm smile. "Kelsea."

She extends her hand and he pauses for a beat before taking it. "Nik." He flashes his dimples and she flushes, glancing away. "Here," he pulls out his wallet and hands her a hundred dollar bill. "Take this, get what you want."

"I can't," she shakes her head. "I'm fine."

Klaus grabs her hand and looks her in the eye. "Take it." Kelsea closes her fingers around the money just as the blonde from before slips past them in the aisle, renewing his hunger.

"It was nice meeting you."

Disappointment briefly flashes across her face as she eyes the blonde. "Thank you." She holds up the money and grabs a carton of eggs before leaving the aisle.

He slides up next to the blonde and catches her eye. "Hello, my dear, would you care to join me for a bite to eat?"

VV

Klaus finds her again at the bus stop in front of the store, the grocery bags surrounding her on the bench while she works on crocheting an uneven baby blanket, glancing at a book in her lap every so often. He pulls the Expedition along the curb and leans over the center console, glancing in the rearview mirror to be sure all the blood is off his face.

"Are you waiting for the bus?"

"Nope just sitting here 'cause I can," Kelsea looks up and smiles warmly at him. "You again."

"Me again. Do you want a ride?"

"The one piece of advice my mother gave me was don't get into a strangers car." He chuckles as he comes around the car to lean against the passenger door.

"Really, even if you have already taken the strangers money?" She shrugs smiling slyly so he slips on his innocent face and hold up his hands, palms out in an attempt to look nonthreatening. "I promise I'm not a serial killer, just a nice guy wanting to give a pregnant woman a ride home."

Kelsea raises her eyebrows and sets the blanket back in her bag, looking mildly offended. "And if I wasn't knocked up?"

"Then I'm just a nice guy giving a beautiful woman a ride."

"Hmm a _ride_?" Kelsea throws her head back letting out a bright raucous laugh (_the infectious kind), _bringing a smile to his face. Klaus playfully rolls his eyes as he crouches in front of her while she tries to stifle her laughter. He doesn't have all day to sit there and charm her into his car. _But he does._

"Let me take you home."

She nods her head almost robotically as the compulsion takes hold but a smile still tugs at her lips and giggles, "You can give me a _ride_ later."

VV

Klaus sits on the twin bed in her room as she puts the groceries in the small refrigerator just outside the door. The room is empty except for the bed, a night stand and a crib in the corner that looks like it belongs in an antique store, better yet the dump.

It was odd for him to be this close to a human and not be ripping out her throat or even thinking about it. Maybe it's because she reminds him of Caroline _(strong and caring)_ or Esther _(motherly and independent). _

_No_, Klaus tells himself, _he just wants the baby_. A son he can mold and shape, to love him without the sire bond. To be loyal to him without force.

_Even in death Mikael still shapes his life._

"Thank you again," Kelsea murmurs, watching her shoes as she leans against the door frame.

"No problem, love."

VV

They talked on the phone for weeks after they met, mostly about her life, her past and what she wants for her future. She's brutally honest and completely uncensored about her life, thoughts and opinions. _Like Rebekah._

Kelsea's father left when she was young and she was raised by her mother who dove into alcohol when he moved out to marry another woman. Since she was five, Kelsea has taken care of the cooking, cleaning and laundry for both herself and her mother (_trying to be a good daughter_).

When she was sixteen she met the baby's father, who was a few years older and into drugs. He gave her the escape she so desperately wanted.

She was pregnant at nineteen.

He was gone by her twentieth birthday.

She lost her job, all her friends and was forced to move back in with her mother soon after. Despite all of this she is a caring, warm, down to earth soul and he rather likes talking to her. It is refreshing to talk to someone without a hidden agenda. _Someone who genuinely likes him._

"What are you reading?" she asks over the phone while he taps the bookmark against the spine of the book as it lays open, face down, on his belly.

"The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli."

"Ooh I heard of him, that's the one about power and ruling, right?"

His lips twitch up into a faint smile. "Yes, it's the one about ruling."

"Hmm and what are you wanting to rule?"

"Everything," he answers honestly but keeps his tone light and playful. "What was the last thing you read?"

"Yeah, since I read_ all_ the time," she scoffs playfully. "Umm, I think it was Pride and Prejudice. Didn't understand a damn word and it was required reading so I didn't give a fuck."

He can hear the scratching of the sponge against a pan in the background. "Is your mom awake?"

"Nope, passed out hours ago. I'm doing up the last of the dinner dishes while she sleeps. Otherwise she will throw a fit."

There is a long pause as she rinses the dishes before he asks, "What are you going to do?"

"I have no clue," she whispers.

VV

Klaus wipes blood from around his mouth and looks down at what is left of Kelsea's ex, the baby's father. It wasn't a particularly slow death but Klaus feels better nonetheless, the thought of… whatever his name was… being out there with the ability to waltz back into Kelsea's life made his skin crawl. _Not that he cares about her._

He kicks a severed hand out of the way and stalks over to the car to pull a small bag of Elena's blood (_just enough to turn them) _from the cooler in the back. He leans back against the bumper and waits.

It is a full moon.

Klaus can feel it**, **the need to turn; it's like an itch deep in his skin that he can't scratch; an ach in his bones. Having been suppressed for so long, he relishes that feeling.

He checks his watch and waits._ Not yet._

A small red headed girl is the first to gasp to life and Klaus is by her side, blood bag in hand. The rest of the pack come to life soon after, all horrified to find their friend dead, but Klaus speeds around them passing out the small bags of Elena's blood.

_Why waste perfectly good werewolves?_

VV

It is 4:30 in the morning when the cell phone rings, breaking the dead silence of the house. Klaus had gone to bed not long before, a particularly feisty blonde he had found with a few of his new comrades had kept him up most of the night. He answers with a grunt, his face still buried in a pillow.

"Nik," her voice is just above a whisper and laced with fear. He is out of bed and pulling off his blood stained clothes before Kelsea can even finish the next sentence. "They're four minutes apart."

"All right sweetheart, I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Ok," Kelsea says her voice cracking as she disconnects the line. Klaus shoves the phone in the pocket of his jeans and pulls a clean shirt over his head. Grabbing a coat from the back of a chair, he is out the door in seconds.

He finds it funny that the night he kills the baby's father, Kelsea goes into labor.

_Funny indeed._

VV

Klaus pulls open the screen door to Kelsea's house and lets it slam closed behind him, waking her mother from her drunken stupor on the couch. _Pathetic. _She spits and sputters at him unable to form actual words as he crosses the living room, paying her no attention.

She settles on throwing a beer bottle at him which crashes into the wall beside his head. Klaus stops and turns, ready to tear out her throat when Kelsea starts to descend the stairs. She comes into view clutching her belly and grimacing in pain, her hair still wet from the shower.

"I'm never having anymore children. This little bastard is enough," she smiles weakly, her eyes still shining with tears, as she passes him. A small smile is all he can muster in his rage. "Could you get my bag please, it's in my room."

Kelsea says nothing to her mother, didn't even bother to look at her as she walks out the door. _No point._

Up the stairs and back down with her bag before the screen door has even slammed closed, Klaus heads towards the door but stops and drops the bag. The veins beneath his eyes darken and he feels his teeth elongate. He speeds over to her mother; his hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming as he pushes her into the couch. He wills himself to keep his grip light. _No need to mark her._

"You will keep drinking. Do not stop," he pauses, smiling slightly. "Until I tell you." She nods dumbly and he lets her sit up. She reaches out a shaking hand to open a beer bottle as Klaus picks up the bag and pulls the door closed behind him (_with no intention of ever coming back)._

VV

A screaming, healthy baby boy is born at 2:32 that afternoon. Kelsea is nearly crying as much as the baby out of sheer frustration and exhaustion.

Childbirth is not an experience Klaus ever wants to witness again. The blood, the screaming and the crying _(his hand being broken about five times in her grip) - _he sees nothing beautiful about it. But the baby in the end is beautiful.

Klaus sits hunched over in the chair beside the bed, the unnamed baby swaddled on his legs, his tiny head cradled in his hands, for hours while Kelsea sleeps. Just thinking, imagining this baby's life with a mother that loves him unconditionally. Even in the moments after he was born Klaus could feel her love for the child radiating from her. At least the child has that since he was now fatherless but no father is better than a father that doesn't want him_ (or love him)._

"Hey," her soft voice breaks him out of his reverie.

"Hello, love."

Kelsea gives him a weak smile and holds out her hands, motioning for the baby. She pats the bed beside her when he stands. As she shifts onto her side, Klaus lays the baby on the bed and moves to sit in the chair but she grabs his wrist and pulls him back.

"What should I name you, hmm?" she murmurs to the baby as she runs her fingers over the dusting of black hair on his head. Klaus shifts her legs over and sits on the bed with his arm over her to prop himself up.

"What names do you like?"

It takes Klaus a moment to realize that she is talking to him. He shrugs. "I had a brother named Henrik."

"Had?" He gives a swift jerky nod and looks back at the baby. "I'm sorry."

"People say that but it never makes it better." He catches her gaze again and this time she looks away, flushing slightly.

"Henry, I like Henry Jamison Kroe. If that's ok?" She looks up, smiling at him. He gives her a dimpled grin in return.

"I like that too."

VV

Kelsea sits in the backseat of the Expedition with Henry as Klaus drives her home. _To her new home really._ He had bought the house after he met her, with the intent of staying around for a while. It was nothing too extravagant, just six bedrooms and three baths and the last house in the cul-de-sac with the back of the property butting up against a dense forest surrounding the area (_that he compelled the land owners to give to him_).

Renovations had finished the previous week moving the kitchen from the front of the house to an addition off the back of the dining room, making a study for Klaus. _Leaving the rooms upstairs open for his siblings, should they show up._

Klaus pulls around the circular driveway and Kelsea finally looks up from watching the baby. "Where are we? I thought you were taking me home."

Klaus just smiles as he helps her out of the backseat and grabs the carrier and the bag for her.

"Nik," she whines, wanting an answer but he ignores her and shoulders open the front door. He leads her up stairs to a large room at the end of the hall. It is longer than it is wide with a beautiful crib, changing table and dresser all painted black, stocked with everything she needs for Henry. An antique rocking chair sits in the corner beside the bay window overlooking the huge back yard, shaded by two large dogwood trees.

Painted across the midnight blue ceiling are the phases of the moon with the full moon above the crib (_playing the irony for all it is worth_). The dark blue fades down to a light baby blue that covers the walls where antique paintings of the individual constellations hang.

Klaus waits by the door until she is done examining the room. When she turns, smiling as her eyes fill with tears, he catches her eye.

"Stay with me."

VV

A week later the police show up on his door step to inform Kelsea that her mother had died a few days prior from alcohol poisoning. She stands stoic, no tears, nothing, as she answers the questions and tells the cop to contact her aunt to take care of the body.

Henry's cries from the baby monitor break through the tense silence after Klaus closes the door behind the cop. It seems to snap her out of her shock and she slips up the stairs without a word but the moment the door to Henry's room closes he hears her resolve break.

_Humans._

He gives her half an hour before he goes to check on her and the baby. She's standing over Henry's crib, crying softly when he pushes open the door.

"Are you alright?" Klaus asks quietly from the doorway.

"Why do people ask that when they already know the answer?" she shoots him a sardonic smile over her shoulder. He walks over and rests his hand on her back, both watching as Henry sleeps. Kelsea turns and before he knows it her arms are around his waist, her head against his chest.

_Humans. _

His hand comes up to stroke her hair as she cries while the other rubs light circles on her lower back, beneath her shirt.

"I'm not crying over _her_, I'm crying over who she _could_ have been."

VV

Rebekah shows up a few months after Henry is born. She stands on Klaus' doorstep surrounded by her luggage, large sunglasses covering her eyes as she plans her dramatic entrance once a hybrid or Nik opens the door. But she is taken by surprise when a human girl opens the door with a warm smile and a baby bottle.

"You must be Rebekah," she says, her eyes missing that glassy, compelled look so many girls around Nik have. "Nik has told me about you."

The girl turns and calls his name. "Come on in." She pulls the door open wider so Rebekah can step into the foyer. "So Nik told me you were traveling with your brother, is he here too?"

"No," Rebekah answers shortly. _Told you about me? _

Klaus saunters into the foyer, the baby in his arms, not missing a beat when he sees his sister.

"'Bekah, so good to see you." He hands the sleeping baby off to the girl who quietly slips up the stairs after giving her a kind smile.

"Who is she Nik?" Rebekah asks crossing her arms over her chest asshe tries not to sound jealous.

"Come now 'Bekah not jealous of a human girl are you?" he teases heading through the dining room to his study.

"Shut up Nik!"

VV

Rebekah decides she likes her. It takes a few days but she finds Kelsea to be a genuinely kindhearted and ordinary person, just as Klaus told her (_but she has better senses about these things_). She truly seems to care about her brother (_he's just as petulant and reclusive as ever_).

Rebekah takes Kelsea shopping at the little mall not far from the house, the first time she has been out of the house since she had the baby. It's frightening how much he's rubbed off on her in a few short months. _Rebekah sets out to change that_.

She buys Kelsea clothes she says she doesn't need, shoes she won't wear, bags she won't use and enjoys every minute of it.

"The clothes in the twenties were less…slutty." She holds up a pair of tiny faux leather shorts that leave little to the imagination and adds them to Kelsea's pile.

"The what?"

Rebekah sighs and turns around, catching her eye. "You didn't hear that." _That's_ tiring though, the compelling when she lets something slip. She would rather Klaus just compel her to be fine with the fact she is living with thousand year old vampires but _no_ he wants to keep her the way she is (_uncorrupted was the word he used_).

Kelsea's eyes lose that glassy look as she glances over at the pile of clothes Rebekah is gathering up for her. "There is no way in _hell_ that I'm wearing _those_!" She holds up the shorts and raises her eyebrows.

"Nik will like them."

"Then he can wear them." The mental image comes to both of them simultaneously and Kelsea throws her head back to let out a loud cackle making the other shoppers look at them in annoyance while Rebekah leans against her to keep from falling over.

_She decides she likes her sense of humor._

VV

Kelsea slips out of her room and pulls her bedroom door shut as quietly as she can. Henry in one arm and a bag over her shoulder, she carefully tiptoes down the hall avoiding the spots that creak and groan.

The house is eerily silent with no sounds from the TV, radio or any kitchen appliance, the usual sounds as she cooks or cleans. _It is quite creepy_.

Rebekah is out shopping, for what Kelsea does not know (_she has enough clothes and shoes for a small army of girls_) and Klaus is in his study below. _Perfect for her get away._

Kelsea keeps one eye on the staircase as she passes intent on the next door on the left. A creak from the floor below startles her and she quickly dives into the room, keeping the door cracked just enough so she can see out. When no one appears at the top of the staircase she crosses the room to a set of frosted glass doors.

Kelsea pulls them open and sighs at the sight of a bathtub that she _knew_ was bigger than the whole bathroom she had at her mother's house. It was black marble with room enough for two and level with the window, overlooking the garden she had planted just behind the kitchen. She had told Rebekah she planned on asking Klaus about putting in a garden. She's not sure if Rebekah told him or if he overheard but the next day she found the area tilled with a cute little wrought iron fence surrounding it.

Kelsea turns on the taps and starts to strip herself and Henry as the tub fills. She dumps in some of the bubble bath stuff Rebekah had bought her to create a nice thick layer of bubbles on the water. The water is perfect as she carefully slips in with Henry. Keeping her feet flat and her legs bent, Kelsea rests Henry against them to soap him down.

Rarely does she get moments like these to herself (_really she doesn't give herself these moments_). Since she moved in, Kelsea feels like she has to cook and clean. The least she can do is have hot meals on the table and keep everything picked up for the roof over her head. She is grateful everyday for Nik, not many (_if any_) wealthy artists in their twenties would move in a woman with another man's child and not expect sex.

He never complains about Henry crying in the middle of the night, never balks at giving him a bath, and dotes on him as if he is his own child. He buys her new clothes (_now Rebekah's job_), gave her the most beautiful kitchen she could ever dream of, gets her everything she asks for (_or doesn't ask for_), and simply talks to her. Some nights they are up on the deck over the foyer talking about nothing and everything until the sun rises (_she absolutely loves those nights until Henry wakes her up only a few hours later_).

"We should call Nik to come and get you," she muses softly as Henry smacks at the bubbles multiplying around them. "Before you're a cute little raisin."

Just as she reaches over the edge of the tub for her phone, the door opens and Klaus walks in, Henry's frog towel thrown over his shoulder as if he's psychic. _Sometimes she really wonders._

"I knew I forgot something," she chuckles, holding a bubbly Henry out to him. Ignoring her immodesty, Klaus pushes up the sleeves of his shirt and takes the baby from her.

"Enjoying yourself?" he asks over his shoulder as he rinses Henry off in the sink before wrapping him up in the towel.

"Yes, immensely," she giggles as she sinks down lower so only her face is showing. "It's not like you use this. There was at least this much dust," she holds her fingers about an inch apart above the bubbles.

Klaus chuckles, rolling his eyes playfully as he slips from the room with the baby, letting her take the rest of her bath in peace.

VV

"I always wanted a sister," Rebekah watches as Kelsea paints her toenails before meeting her eyes. "I love my brothers but…"

Kelsea gives her a knowing smile. "They won't paint your toes pink?"

"Exactly."

VV

They dance around the living room, the music blasting from the sound system that has only ever played jazz, as they sing along (_off key_) with The Kinks. The early morning sun streams through the open patio doors illuminating them in a soft golden light. Kelsea's white cotton nightgown swirls around her legs as she spins in circles, her head thrown back and her arms outstretched.

"Niiiik," Rebekah draws out his name in a singsong voice when she spots him watching from the bottom of the staircase. "Dance with us," she whines. She grabs his hand and pulls him onto their makeshift dance floor in the middle of the living room. They had pushed the furniture against the walls and the Indian rug (_he spent entirely too much money on_) was rolled up and shoved in a corner.

Kelsea stops spinning when she sees him, bare-chested and hair still tussled from sleep. Her heart rate jumps but she smiles and grabs his other hand.

"_Yeah you really got me; You got me so I don't know what I'm doing now_…" They sing as they dance around him. Shimming and bouncing, Kelsea throws her head back and lets out her infectious laugh making him smile.

"How could you let me miss the sixties?" Rebekah hisses in his ear, low enough so Kelsea won't hear.

"Just another decade with a war, sweetheart."

He excuses himself when the song changes, much to their dismay and slips into the dining room to watch them from the shadows. Rebekah wraps her arms around Kelsea and they sway back and forth, singing softly now (_still off key_).

"_You're just too good to be true; Can't take my eyes off of you; You'd be like heaven to touch; I wanna hold you so much_…"

VV

"He loves you," Rebekah announces as they stand in the dressing room at a fancy new boutique that had just moved into the mall while Kelsea zips her into a pretty green cocktail dress.

"We're just friends."She blushes and turns to sit on the small bench. Rebekah raises an eyebrow and looks at her in the mirror, completely unconvinced.

"I know my brother."

"It's been nearly a year since I met him. Is he waiting for me to drop the baby weight or something?" Kelsea asks jokingly, but Rebekah can hear the pain in her voice, watching as she pulls her shirt over the curve of her belly self-consciously.

"Do you love him?"

"I don't know," she whispers.


	2. Part 1: Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **Same as before.

**A/N: **Thanks everyone that alerted my story, they are lovely but reviews really make the world go 'round. ;) Also, I watched a video that Joseph Morgan did for MTV's 10 on Top that had info about the items in the mansion and some managed to worm their way into the story. :)

**Who You Are and What You Could Have Been**

**Part 1: Chapter 2**

Elijah shows up a year to the day after Rebekah, no theatrics, just walks in like he had never left. He pauses midway in the foyer at the sound of a cooing baby. His heart skips a beat at the sight of Rebekah on the floor in the living room tickling a toddler as she makes faces at him.

"Elijah," Klaus says as he appears beside him, wiping paint off his fingers with a rag.

"Niklaus," he greets. He jerks his head to the right and Elijah follows him into a quiet room in the corner of the house. Books are stacked high and his brother's artwork covers every available surface. Long gone are the sketches of the feisty blonde vampire of Mystic Falls and in their place an unfamiliar woman and child.

"What are you doing, Niklaus?" Elijah asks calmly, fingering a sketch of the woman her face in a deep frown as she holds the baby to her breast.

Klaus sits on a stool and smiles. "What do you mean brother?"

"Where is that child's mother?"

Klaus waves his hand around nonchalantly. "Somewhere here," he pauses. "In the kitchen making lunch, if you want to be precise."

"I will ask you again_ brother_, what are you doing?"

"Making memories," Klaus grins as he stands from the stool, pulling a recent sketch from under the others to hand it over to Elijah. The face of the child grins back at him. "Baby Henry there is a werewolf."

"You are raising that child to turn him into one of your hybrids? Does she know or have you compelled her to over look that?" Elijah all but snarls.

Klaus takes the sketch back still smiling faintly. "I haven't compelled her…much."

"So you_ are_ turning him." Klaus says nothing but Elijah already knows the answer. _He just wants to be loved._

"What are you going to do with her then?"

"Kill her, send her on her merry way, depends on my mood when the time-."

The door opens and Elijah turns, surprised to find the woman standing with one hand on her hip looking irritated, a far cry from the compelled timid creature he had been expecting.

"Nik-" she starts, her voice a growl. "Oh hello," her voice softens and her face lights up when she sees Elijah. She looks at Klaus and raises an eyebrow expectantly.

Klaus steps forward to put his hand on Elijah's shoulder. "Kelsea this is my brother Elijah. Elijah this is Kelsea."

Kelsea reaches out her hand and he shakes it mutely. "It's nice to meet you. I'm slowly meeting Nik's family, one a year so far. Don't want to rush anything," she teases. Elijah glances at Klaus only to find him watching her affectionately. _He wouldn't kill her, on purpose._ "Will you be staying here for long?"

Elijah looks to Klaus who just raises his eyebrows in return. "For a while."

"Rebekah said the same thing and she's still here." Kelsea shoots him a playful wink.

"I heard that!" Rebekah appears in the doorway, Henry fussing in her arms. She promptly hands him over to Kelsea. "He's hungry."

"Well I don't know about you guys," she says smiling down at the child as she slips from the room. "But we're going to have lunch."

VV

The first thing that Elijah notices about the house (_besides the fact it's much smaller and brighter than the mansion in Mystic Falls_) is that there is nothing of Kelsea's decorating the house, just the odd items Klaus has picked up over the years (_and years_). A chair from their hut in the Viking village sits in the corner of the living room with a philodendron on the seat, a few famously stolen paintings adorn the walls of the dining room with the table and chair set from Germany. An Indian rug in the living room, a chandelier in the foyer from their time in Belgium, it's haunting in a way to see these items from their past and _remember_ them when he's sure none of them can even recall what Henrik looked like.

Elijah brings the last of the lunch dishes into the kitchen while Klaus slips back into his study to work on his painting and Rebekah takes Henry upstairs for a bath (_soup and fifteen month olds don't mix well apparently_).

"Thank you." Kelsea smiles as he sets them on the counter by the sink. He unrolls the sleeves of his dress shirt as he sits at the small table in the corner of the kitchen to watch her, briefly glancing up at the glass ceiling when the trees scratch against it in the wind. "So you're Nik's older half brother?"

Elijah frowns as he adjusts his cufflinks. _How did she-_

"Oh sorry, Rebekah told me about your mother, I thought-"

"It is fine," he says waving it off. "It is common knowledge."

"Ok," she smiles carefully over her shoulder, unsure where to take the conversation. "Were you raised with, your siblings? Your accent, it's different."

Elijah frowns, wondering what lie Klaus has already told her about their lives. "I was but I moved here a very long time ago and simply lost it, it seems."

"Couldn't have been _that_ long ago," she smiles playfully.

"Why are you hand washing the dishes when there is a dishwasher there?" he points at the appliance to her right, shifting the subject off of his family.

Kelsea blushes and chuckles, glancing around before leaning towards him to whisper, "I don't know how to use it."

_He decides he likes her simple nature._

VV

"Are you gay?" Kelsea asks late one night while she watches TV beside him on the couch with Henry half curled in her lap as he quietly sketches her profile.

Rebekah's sharp barking laugh comes from somewhere in the house.

Klaus looks up at her with a grin forming on his face. "What makes you ask that, sweetheart?"

"Well, I've never seen you with anyone. You go out but never bring anyone back here. And you never pushed up on me," she adds quietly after a pause, blushing.

"Pushed up on you?" he slowly repeats the phrase.

"Oh, shut up," Kelsea mutters, turning back to the TV.

He chuckles and leans over to whisper in her ear. "You've never seen me with a man either, love." He punctuates the sentence with a kiss to her cheek. She flushes an even deeper red and refuses to look at him as he closes his sketchbook and leaves the room.

_Neither sure what exactly they are feeling._

VV

"He loves you," Elijah states as he watches her cook dinner, a ham with scalloped potatoes and bread that she was working on twisting together. She smacks the back of his hand with a spoon as he reaches into the bowl of cherries for the dessert she was also going to make.

"No he doesn't," she says firmly, sliding the bread in the second oven on the range. She pauses a moment, watching out the window as she swallows the lump in her throat before turning back around.

"Do you love him?"

"Yes," she breathes.

VV

Kol shows up six months after Elijah, with dramatic flair. He's sitting at the small table in the kitchen drinking a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper when Klaus and Kelsea go down for breakfast. Kelsea, to busy talking about what new omelet recipe she wants to try, doesn't notice him until he speaks, "Lovely little one you got there Nik."

She screams and grabs a butcher knife from the block on the counter, pointing it at him. _Feisty too._

"Who the fuck are you?" she asks calmly while her heart beats wildly in her chest. Kol grins at Klaus, his eyebrows rising in surprise. _He hasn't compelled her to be quiet and obedient, she will be fun._

Klaus steps behind her and pulls the blade from her grip, slipping it back into the knife block while she relaxes into his touch. "Kelsea meet my brother Kol."

"Pleasure," Kol steps forward and taking her hand in his, kisses her knuckles. She pulls away while fisting the handle of the cast-iron skillet on the island beside her with her other hand.

"Get him out of my kitchen," Kelsea growls, glaring at Kol over her shoulder as she slams the pan down on the stove. Klaus obliges and steers Kol from the room, guiding him with his hand on the back of his neck across the dining room to the study.

"Pretty thing, can I have her? I'll try to not break her, I promise," he says the moment the door is closed. Klaus grabs his throat and slams him against the opposite wall, his grip getting tighter with every moment. "Fine we can share, if you're going to be that way," he gasps out, grinning the whole time.

"If you lay a finger on her I will-"

"What? Rip out my liver…or shall it be my spleen? You need more threats brother, there are only so many body parts that you can rip out."

"How about I bite you then?" Klaus growls in return, his eyes yellowing and his teeth lengthening.

"Now you know that won't kill me."

"Yes, but it will hurt."

VV

Kol scratches at the bite on his forearm from Klaus_ (it itches like a bitch_), slowly it is healing (_would be faster if he would keep his hands off of it_). He had only put his hand on her lower back (_he didn't think that warranted a bite_) as he slipped behind her in the kitchen. Sure it may have been on purpose and he may have been aiming lower, but_ still_ it was innocent enough.

He hides his arm under the table when Kelsea walks back in the room (_not that he has to, thanks to Klaus' compulsion_), thumping the bottle of whiskey down on the table in front of him. Klaus raises his eyebrows and smirks, taking a bite out of his steak (_much too bloody for Kol's liking_).

"Thank you, darling." Kol flashes his charming smile but she just rolls her eyes in annoyance.

"You are trying too hard."

"I'm hardly trying."

"Fine. You are too young for me."

"I'm an old soul." He shoots her a playful wink.

"Oh so that's what they are calling impotence these days?"

_He decides he wants her sharp tongue. _

VV

"He loves you." Kol corners her in the bathroom off Klaus' room as she steps out of the tub, tightly pulling the towel around herself. He leans a shoulder against the door frame to watch as she assesses her face in the mirror.

"So I've been told," Kelsea mutters, pulling the towel further down her thighs.

"If it were me I would have already taken a bite out of you." Kol smiles at the double entendre she won't understand as he slinks closer.

"Why don't you?" She turns, dropping the towel to the floor. The smile fades from his face as he takes in all her curves (_the swell of her breasts, the curve of her hips_), it makes his mouth water. The women in France (_though beautiful_) were far too skinny for his liking. He speeds over to her and lifts her onto the counter by the sink, his lips already pressed against hers.

She pulls desperately at his clothes but soon her kisses and touches turn tentative as she has second thoughts. Kol rests his head against her neck with a sigh as he nips at her throat with blunt teeth (_intent on leaving a mark_).

"Do you love him?"

"What do you think?" Kelsea says bitingly, pushing him away and grabbing the towel from the floor to cover herself with.

Kol slips out of the room without another word. _He already knows the answer._

VV

The hickey on her throat lasts for a week. But Kol leaves the next day (_something about not doing kids_) though he promises Henry that he will send him a trinket from wherever he lands next. With a hug to Rebekah and a wink to Kelsea, he is gone.

"Did you _fuck_ him?" Klaus asks quietly over dinner that night, twirling the spaghetti around his fork before stabbing at a piece of meatball like its Kol's heart. _Not that he cares._

Kelsea sits to his right, pushing the food around her plate, not really eating anything. "What the fuck does it matter to you if I did or not?"

"This is _my_ house," he growls, like it is enough of an answer.

"Big fucking deal, it's _my_ pussy," Kelsea snaps back. Klaus violently stands from the table, knocking over his chair and nearly sending his food flying.

"Enough," Elijah says calmly, taking a sip of his wine. They all look down the table at Henry who is too busy chasing a noodle around his plate to notice. Klaus rights his chair and sinks back down into it, shooting a glare at Rebekah when she gives him a disapproving look.

"You're right. Why should I care that you're spreading your legs like a bitch in heat for my slut of a brother."

Kelsea stands with tears in her eyes and pushes the plate of spaghetti into his face and drags it down his chest, staining his white shirt. She drops the plate in his lap and runs into the kitchen, slamming the door closed behind her.

He stands intent on following her but Elijah is already up, calmly adjusting his cufflinks and blocking the doorway to the kitchen when he turns around.

"Niklaus, take a walk." Klaus lets out a snarl and slams out of the house, leaving a trail of his clothes as he heads into the trees behind the house to turn.

VV

Klaus creeps into the house early the next morning, dressed in the clothes someone (_Elijah_) left for him on the patio, only to find Kelsea curled up on the couch already awake. He pauses just inside the doors and waits for her to notice him. It does not take long. She looks up at him tiredly.

Kelsea quietly unfolds herself from the couch and tentatively approaches him, like he might snap if she moves too fast. _Like a wild animal._

Her heart beats faster when she stands on her toes to hug him. "I was worried," she whispers into his shoulder. He says nothing and pulls her tight against his chest, relieved to find she does not smell _of _Kol.

_Not that he cares._

VV

No one mentions the 'L' word again.

Klaus ignores the fact the Kelsea's heart beats a little faster when he touches her. _She couldn't possibly love him._

Kelsea resolves herself to the fact that Klaus does not love her. _She does love him._

VV

It's nearly her birthday (_which has her suspicious already_) and Klaus had been spending more time than usual locked in his study with Henry, now three (_making her even more suspicious_). When they do come out, Henry giggles and runs from whatever room she is in while Klaus smiles and says nothing when she asks what's going on.

Surprised to find the door to Klaus' study unlocked after she knocks, she pushes it open, itching to quell her curiosity. Klaus sits facing the door with Henry on his lap, a large canvas on the easel before them as they paint with their fingers.

"You're not supposed to be in here," Klaus says not looking up from the painting, smiling slightly. He has small blue hand prints on both his cheeks, retaliation for the red dot on the end of Henry's nose she would guess. Kelsea backs out of the room, trying to hide the grin on her face.

_What are a few more days?_

VV

On the morning of her birthday a huge painting appears on the mantle above the fireplace. Three large sunflowers stand proud (_all slightly bent_) in the middle of the canvas with rolling hills stretching into the horizon behind them where the sun had just set, shooting yellows and oranges into the sky.

From a distance it has the simplicity of a child's finger painting but up close she can see the professional details (_shading on the leaves and pedals_). In the corner is a large red hand print and inside of it is a small blue one with Klaus and Henry's initials written on the palm.

_Kelsea has never loved Klaus and Henry more._

VV

On the first day of kindergarten (_at the private elementary school Klaus insisted on)_ Henry races in the front door, out of breath (_having ran from the bus stop_). He kicks off his shoes and drops his backpack in the foyer to run into the living room where Klaus, Kelsea and Rebekah sit, pretending they weren't (_impatiently_) waiting for him.

Henry walks straight up to Klaus and puts his hands on his hips (_like Kelsea_). "Are you my dad?" Klaus opens his mouth in shock while Henry continues, "Because all the other kids have a mom and a dad, or a mom and a mom, or a dad and a dad." Kelsea and Rebekah cover their mouths to keep from laughing. "But I have a mom and a Nik, a Aunt Bekah, a Uncle Kol and a Uncle 'lijah. But no dad." He raises his eyebrows (_like Klaus_) in expectation.

Klaus slides off the couch and crouches down so he is level with Henry. "I'm not but I can be your dad if you want me to."

"Ok," Henry nods while the girls wipe away tears. "But I'm still calling you Nik."

VV

"'ik?" a soft voice says from beside the bed. Klaus grunts. He was having a delightful dream about chasing a group of village girls around a field and ripping into their throats when they trip on their long skirts. He was about to catch the last one (_a faceless blonde_). She was just in within his reach then-

"Nik?" the voice says a little louder and Klaus opens one eye to find Henry inches from his face.

"Hmm?" he automatically lifts up the blankets for Henry to slip under. "What's the matter? Did you have a bad dream?" Henry nods against his chest. Klaus tries to think of the way his mother (_it sure as hell wasn't his father_) comforted him as a child but he honestly can't remember. A trivial thing to remember really, if he had nightmares as a child, he was sure he did but it was so long ago…

_Now he is the monster, the star of the dream._

Klaus hesitates a moment before gently rubbing Henry's back, the way Kelsea did when he told her of the deaths in his family. It seems to do the trick as the boy snuggles closer, laying his head on Klaus arm.

"Why didn't you go see Kel- mommy?"

"She had a bad dream too."

"How do you know?"

"I heard her crying."

VV

Kelsea pulls the blanket tighter around her shoulders as she listens to Klaus tell Henry the story of Hercules while they lay in the backyard, curled up on the biggest blanket she could find. She remembers parts of the story, having heard it some time ago. _A lifetime ago it seems like at times._

There is still a little bite in the air but it doesn't seem to affect Klaus as he traces invisible lines linking the stars of the constellation together. She watches his lips forming the words to the story he seems to know by heart. It amazes her every day the things that he_ knows_, it makes her feel stupid when he has to stop and explain something to her but he never complains or belittles her. _That's why she loves him._

Kelsea brushes the curly black hair out of Henry's face to find him sleeping, his head against Klaus' shoulder. She nudges Klaus lightly and he abruptly stops talking. He smiles when he notices Henry and moves to get up but Kelsea grabs his hand, threading her fingers through his.

"Kelsea…" he starts (_it sounds like sin on his lips_).

"It's fine," she whispers. "Let's stay for a while." He nods and settles back down, tucking her blanket around all of them. She watches his profile wishing there was more to their clasped hands beneath the blanket. When he turns to look at her, she quickly looks back up at the sky and pulls her hand from his grip.

_Unrequited love is a bitch._


	3. Part 2: Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **Same as before. Lyrics-Sam the Sham.

**A/N: **Thanks for all the reviews, favorites and alerts! Enjoy! :)

**Who You Are and What You Could Have Been**

**Part 2: Chapter 1**

_Little Red Riding Hood  
I'd like to hold you if I could  
But you might think I'm a big bad wolf so I won't_

Henry is seven when Kelsea dies. All beautiful innocence and startling intelligence for someone so young. Klaus finds he loves the boy more than he ever thought he could.

It makes his heart swell when Henry comes running into the house and through the dining room to his study, key chains (_from Kol_) on his backpack jangling with every step. It is a ritual now; Henry drops his backpack outside the door and slips in the room to perch himself on the arm of couch closest to Klaus, waiting patiently (_sometimes_) while he finishes painting, drawing, or reading.

Once the brush, pencil or book is laid down Henry bursts, telling Klaus everything he learned that day in school and wanting to know the _real_ story about the Mayans, the Vikings and the Greeks. Klaus obliges, leaving nothing out, even the blood and gore. They stay in there until Kelsea (_impatiently_) calls them for dinner where the stories continue until she quickly puts a stop to them.

(_"Does someone always have to die a bloody, gory death while I'm eating dinner?"_)

_They make his life whole._

v

Kelsea swears and reaches out (_she knows it's a mistake the minute she does it_), catching the knife by the blade. It leaves a deep gash across the palm of her hand and she watches in horror (_fascination_) as blood leaks from the wound and drips onto the floor.

She finally tears her eyes away and grabs a dish towel from the island. "Fuck… Rebekah!" she screams wrapping the towel around her hand and grabbing the keys to a car from the bowl in the living room, she wasn't sure which one (_Nik has a few, five to be precise_). He was in town, something about hybrids, a car maybe, she didn't know, doesn't really care at the moment, well she does, she would rather him there to drive her to the hospital (_Rebekah's driving scares the shit out of her_).

"Damnit, Rebekah!" Kelsea turns around and screams when she finds Rebekah right behind her. "God, did you have to - What's wrong with your face?"

The veins beneath her eyes are dark beneath the makeup and her eyes look funny but Rebekah says nothing just stares at the blood soaked towel around her hand.

"Rebekah?"

Rebekah shakes her head, her eyes going back to normal (_she was just seeing things, blood loss and all_). "Come with me." She pries the car keys from Kelsea's hand and drags her back into the kitchen, sitting her on a stool she placed by the sink. Her head feels funny, almost lightheaded, fuzzy, maybe it was shock. She needs the hospital, why did Rebekah bring her in here?

"What-" Rebekah shushes her and pulls the towel from around her hand, dumping it in the sink. She takes a breath, her eyes focusing on the gash for a moment before she looks Kelsea in the eye.

"Do as I say." Kelsea finds herself nodding and watching with a sick feeling as Rebekah bites into her own wrist with _fangs_, horrible skin ripping fangs. "Drink." Kelsea does as she says, she can't help it, she can't bring herself to stop drinking the blood flowing from Rebekah's wrist.

Kelsea pulls back, gagging and Rebekah pulls her up to help her wash her hands in the sink. She feels like she can't breathe, the blood thick in her throat, heavy on her tongue.

_Blood and fangs, blood and fangs, oh no._

"I'm home," Klaus calls as the front door slams closed, startling them both. _Nik will help her. _Kelsea struggles against Rebekah, catching the side of her face with an elbow. Rebekah instantly lets her go and Kelsea runs from the kitchen to the study, throwing herself into Klaus' arms, clinging to him, soaking his shirt with tears she didn't even know were running down her face.

"What's wrong, love?He tries to push her away so he can see her face but she doesn't budge, just buries her head deeper in his shoulder trying to stifle her sobs (_praying he is not what Rebekah is_).

"She knows."

_No, no, it can't be. They can't be…_

Klaus sighs (_not good_) and Kelsea pulls back to look at him, she doesn't see the fangs or the veins beneath his eyes but she sees the tired knowing look he gives Rebekah. A sob bubbles in her throat. He takes her face in his hands, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

_No, it really can't be… They can't be…_

"You're vampires?" she whispers the word coming out slightly choked.

"No I'm a hybrid actually," Klaus replies, making it sound far more innocent than it is.

"A hybrid of _what_?"

"Vampire, werewolf. It's a long story for another time." He smiles an all dimple smile (_it frightens her_).

"Nik," Rebekah whines from behind them. "I'm tired of compelling her."

Klaus rolls his eyes and lets out a deep sigh. "Do you want her to be like this?" He raises his hand to stroke her cheek and Kelsea automatically flinches back, proving his point.

"But Nik-"

"No," he says sharply before adding quietly, "Until we know what we are going to do with her... things have changed."

"Nik…" He shakes his head and grabs Rebekah arms, shoving her towards the door.

"What _were _you going to do with me?" Kelsea whispers as he pushes Rebekah from the room. "Answer me!" she screams, throwing a vase at his head when the door is closed, anger overriding her fear. Klaus lunges at her but she stands her ground,if she is going to die she's not going out cowering.

"I was going to kill you," he snarls standing so close she can feel his breath against her face. "When Henry was old enough."

"Then do it, kill me." Kelsea holds out her arms in an invitation, more tears streaking down her cheeks as her whole body shakes.

Klaus' shoulders relax as his anger dissipates as quickly as it appeared. "I need you for Henry," he says grabbing a fist full of her hair and tilting her head back so her eyes meet his. "So I won't be killing you just yet, love."

"Then what are you going to do to me?"

"Just a little compulsion, sweetheart, it won't hurt a bit."

_Is that a power that they have? Is that what made her drink Rebekah's blood?_

"Please…don't."

"It's what's best for now."

"What will you tell Henry when you don't need me anymore?" she whispers. "That you simply got rid of me? How do you think he will take that? He will hate you!" Kelsea screams her voice taking on a hysterical tone as she fights against him in one last attempt to get away (_as futile as it is_). She rears back and slaps him across the face with everything she has (_which isn't much really_), earning a snarl in return.

Klaus forgets about compelling Kelsea, his rage overwhelms him as he grabs her arms and swings her around, slamming her through the opposite wall. They land in the next room, him over her, with a sickening crack. His anger recedes and his heart drops in his chest.

"Kelsea?" She lets out a wheezing gasp and closes her eyes. Klaus holds his breath to make sure he doesn't miss her next one but it never comes. "Kelsea!" He shakes her lightly and sees the pool of blood forming on the rug beneath her head.

"Nik?" a soft voice behind him says. Klaus turns, blocking Kelsea from view as Henry steps into the room, his backpack still over one shoulder. "Is mommy ok?"

Rebekah suddenly appears behind Henry, her mouth open in horror. Klaus opens his mouth to speak but no words come out. "Yes, she'll be fine," Rebekah supplies for him as she grabs Henry's shoulders and steers him from the room, keeping him from seeing the human sized hole in the wall.

_She will not be fine. She is gone. She is dead. He cannot fix her. He killed her. He made Henry just like himself. Henry will hate him now. Rebekah will hate him. He will be alone. Always and forever._

He brushes her hair from her face as he feels his body start to transform. The thoughts and emotions ebbing away as the animal side starts to take over.

VV

Rebekah opens the door a few minutes later to find Klaus in wolf form lying on a pile of shredded clothes beside Kelsea's body, his head resting on her chest. He lets out a growl when she steps closer.

"She'll be fine, Nik. She-" Klaus leaps up with a snarl, his ears pinned back with his head lowered. "Nik!" He snaps at her fingers when she reaches for him and bolts from the room.

VV

Kelsea lets out shuddered breath as she awakens on the floor in the dining room. She feels funny, groggy even.

_Not right_.

Rebekah is by her side in seconds and Kelsea flinches back as she sits up. Hurt, Rebekah drops her hands to her lap watching as Kelsea assesses herself. She runs her hands over her ribcage that she_ knew_ had been crushed, her back she _knew_ was broken and finally her head that had to have been at _least_ fractured.

"Am I a vampire?" Kelsea asks quietly, letting her hands drop to her sides.

"Not yet. You need to drink blood in order to complete the transformation."

"And if…and if I don't?" her voice cracks with emotion.

"You will die."

Kelsea closes her eyes as tears streak down her cheeks. "What kind of blood? Human?"

Rebekah nods. "He didn't mean it," she adds quietly.

"Oh so he didn't mean to push me through wall and _crush_ me?" Kelsea snarls. They fall into a tense uncomfortable silence for a few minutes. "I don't want to kill anyone," Kelsea says finally, accepting her fate. "I _won't_ kill anyone."

_The 'I will not be a monster' is left unsaid._

VV

They sit in the living room for hours talking, ignoring the mess in the dining room. Rebekah, free of having to compel Kelsea when she lets something slip, tells her _everything_. _The first person since that doppelganger bitch._

Kelsea sits quietly in the old wingback chair beside the empty fireplace, nursing a blood bag as Rebekah tells of her family (_she takes the news that she is living with the oldest most powerful vampires relatively well_), the basics of being a vampire, and Henry's curse (_the reason she is in this mess_).

Kelsea stays silent, only asking a few questions regarding Henry's curse and telling Rebekah the things she already knew. Between the both of them over the years she knows their whole history only condensed down to seem like it was over twenty some years rather than a thousand. It surprised her just how much Klaus has actually told her (_much more than she has actually, even things she did not know)._

"He still loves you," Rebekah says to break the silence when she finishes with their story. Kelsea shoots her a skeptical look over her shoulder. "When he is with you I see the Niklaus I used to know, the sweet loving brother he was before we were turned. He likes to pretend that part of him doesn't exist but I see it."

"He only wanted me around for Henry, said so himself."

"Think of all he has done for you. If that were true you would be dead," Rebekah stands from her place on the couch to leave Kelsea alone with her thoughts (_God knows she needed that when she turned_).

"I am _dead_," Kelsea replies watching her walk to the door. Rebekah pauses with her hand on the handrail of the staircase and sadly looks over at the hole in the wall.

"He didn't mean it," she whispers glancing over her shoulder at Kelsea. "All he wants is to be loved."

VV

_All he wants is to be loved._

Yeah, and turn her baby into one of his hybrid minions. Kelsea remembers them now, slipping in and out of the house, talking to Klaus, looking at her with apprehension and confusion until he compelled her to forget she saw them.

It's unnerving to find out someone has been playing with your mind, making you forget things, do things. All the things they let slip are coming back to her in flashes, Rebekah's affinity for the twenties, Elijah filling a glass with blood, the bite marks on Kols arms from Klaus for touching her…

_All he wants is to be loved._

Those words are starting to haunt her, hurt her, enrage her. Why should he be loved, why should she love him when he obviously doesn't return her feelings? She hates him now, she knows Rebekah would tell her that's just her heightened emotions but she wants to hurt him as much as he hurt her.

Kelsea tosses the blood bag in the fireplace and speeds into the dining room where there is still a puddle of her blood on the rug surrounded by shredded clothes, broken bits of wood and drywall. She growls and knocks over the table, the chairs, everything in sight to vent her rage.

When there is nothing left she sets her sights on his study. She upturns the couch (_for compelling her to get in his ca_r), knocks over the end tables (_compelling her to stay with him_), breaks the lamps against the walls (_pretending to care_), throws books across the room (_lying to her about everything_), shatters jars of paint on the floor (_not loving her_), sends the stool through the window (_killing her_). She only stops when the only thing left untouched is the large table shoved against the wall, his artwork covering the surface. That would hurt him the most, the dagger to his immortal heart so to speak.

Kelsea takes a sketch book from beneath sheets of paper and with every intention of ripping the book in half, flips through it only to find sketches of her and Henry filling the pages. While Henry is prominent it's her face looking back at her most often. She drops it and grips the edge of the table so hard that her knuckles turn white.

It was not supposed to be this way, he wasn't supposed to _care_ (_it was easier to hate him that way_).

Kelsea lets out a scream that quickly turns into a sob and sinks to the floor, beating her fists against the floor, leaving to dents in the floorboards.

_How did her life get so fucked up in only a few hours?_

VV

For two days Rebekah takes care of Henry, while Kelsea hides in her room and Klaus in his, still in wolf form (_as far_ _as she knows_). Rebekah takes him to and from school, makes sure he is fed, and that his homework is done, all the while telling him Klaus and Kelsea are _sick. _

_They were sick all right._

The cravings had finally come the night she died and she nearly sucked down every blood bag in the house since. Not that there were many since Klaus and Rebekah, she had soon learned, liked their blood_ fresh_.

Kelsea was horrified when she found herself outside of Henry's room listening to his heart beat as he slept, the blood pumping through his little body, her mouth watering at the sound. That night she moved into Elijah's room on the other side of Klaus'. It was immaculate and smelled like him which calmed her. She had taken to sleeping during the day _(like a real vampire) _while Henry was at school so as not to end up outside of his room again.

She now knows what Klaus does when he leaves at night. She imagines it as she watches people jogging on the sidewalk outside the gate from the shadows of her room, their hearts rapidly pumping the blood through their veins (_as she rips into their throats, their blood splashing over her_).

Kelsea turns away and rips into another blood bag.

On the third day Kelsea grew tired of Klaus' self isolation. He wasn't the one who _died_. He wasn't the one _turned_ against his will. He wasn't the one who couldn't be around Henry for fear of _ripping_ out his little heart. He had no right to mope around like he is.

But as much as she hates him, she can't bring herself to leave. Besides the fact she has nowhere to go, she is a vampire, Henry has known no other family, she has a hard time controlling her cravings because she is a _vampire, _this is her home, her family.

After Rebekah and Henry leave for school she grabs a blood bag and stomps into his room, slamming the door closed after her. He doesn't even _twitch_. His room is dark with only a sliver of light coming through the thick drapes behind his bed (_which she is thankful for_).

Kelsea tosses the blood bag onto the rumpled blankets beside him.

"Eat, you fucker." His eyes open at that and his ears twitch in her direction_._ She stands with her hand on her hip that is cocked to the side (_her bitchy pose he calls it) _for a full minutebefore he closes his eyes. "Fine! Starve to death!" she screams slamming his door closed with enough force to rattle the windows.

VV

It wasn't supposed to be this way. He wasn't supposed to care this much. She's just Henry's mother, a friend, someone disposable (_but she's not, not really_).

He slips off the bed and stretches his legs out in front, his back popping, stretching stiff muscles. He shakes out his fur and sits beside the door, listening for Kelsea. Her dulled heart beat comes from Elijah's room.

Kelsea was dead, he was sure of it until she gasped to life hours after he killed her. That made this worse, made her hate him. Now he really is the monster, villain, the reason to be afraid of the dark. _Why should he bother to change?_

Klaus turns back, his body snapping and cracking, realigning into its true form. He slips on some clothes and grabs his jacket off a chair, going out for a bit to eat (_blood bags are not his thing_).

_Be the monster that he truly is._


	4. Part 2: Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Still the same.

**A/N:** Posting this sooner than I was going to, but it was done so why make you wait for feelings and other 'things'. ;) Reviews still make the world go 'round.

**Who You Are and What You Could Have Been**

**Part 2: Chapter 2**

"You're still wearing your dinner," her voice soft voice echoes throughout the dark foyer as Klaus closes the front door with a faint click. Kelsea is a blur of motion as she shoves him against the door, her hands fisting his shirt while the veins beneath her eyes darken and her fangs lengthen.

"Want a bite, love?"

At his words she steps closer, running her tongue up his neck where the blood had ran (_as he sucked the girl dry_). He cups the back of her head with his hand as she licks away the blood- until she sinks her fangs into his throat. Klaus growls and flings her across the foyer with a flick of his wrist. She skids across the floor on her hands and knees, coming to a stop in front of the staircase. He smells the salt from her tears and scowls.

_Women._

He walks over and holds out his hand to help her up but she smacks it away. "Did you think she may have had a family?"

_So that's what this is about._ "Why should you care? She was just a human," he sighs.

"I was_ just_ a human! Henry is _just_ a human!" she screams beating her fists against the floor. "What if that had been _me_? What if someone _else_ with little regard for human life had come along before you and _killed_ me?"

"There are too many 'what if's' in that sentence sweetheart." He brushes past her intent on the fully stocked bar in the living room. _He needs a drink. She wants him to think, find the reason for his actions._

_He doesn't need reason, he' a vampire, a monster._

"God! You don't understand!"

"What is there to understand? We are the predators they are the prey-"

"Prey with lives, just like yours and mine! Families like ours! Don't stand there and pretend that you wouldn't care if I was killed, I know you would. Pretend you're a monster all you want," she motions to his bloody neck. "But you're not!" The words seem to surprise her as much as they do him and Klaus speeds over to her, slamming her against the wall with his hand around her throat, his other resting in the valley between her breasts, over her heart.

Kelsea's eyes widen slightly but she stares back determinedly while the tears running over her cheeks drip onto his hand. "Do it." His eyes are yellow and his lips part slightly to reveal his fangs. She reaches out running the pad of her thumb over the veins beneath his eyes. "Be like Mikael." He drops her, stumbling back, the words like a punch to the gut.

Klaus runs his hand over his mouth as he lets out a sharp bitter laugh. Stalking into the living room, he grabs the closest fullest bottle of whiskey off the bar and a tumbler.

"You're going to walk away, keep up this fucking charade? Pretend to be the big bad wolf?" she yells at him, her voice echoing in the silence. He just wishes she would shut up as he downs the glass of whiskey and pours himself another. "You couldn't kill me permanently, even if you wanted to!"

Klaus speeds over to her (_again_) and grabs her arms, the force making her fall back onto the marble floor. He looms above her as she beats her fists against his chest… and he lets her. _This is about so much more than him killing someone_. He doesn't budge, just stares down at her (_unable to bring himself to do anything)_.

One moment she's fighting him (_pushing him away_) the next she's kissing him (_pulling him closer_). It's enough to make his head spin. _But it doesn't._ She pushes his jacket over his shoulders and he pulls it the rest of the way off, never breaking the kiss.

Seven years of pent up aggression (_him_) and passion (_her_) all released in one kiss. Teeth and tongue, rough touches and grabbing, the bruises marring their bodies heal as quickly as they are made.

Klaus pushes the white nightgown up her thighs and quickly tears off her green cotton panties. Kelsea smiles into his mouth while grabbing the hem of his shirt and yanking it over his head when he sits up. He takes the shirt from her and tosses it into the shadows of the room.

Neither say a word when she reaches down and pulls the end of his belt from the buckle, cinching it tighter before slowly letting it release, her gaze never wavering from his. Klaus pushes her hands away to undo his jeans himself, the need to be inside her_ too_ great for her slow movements.

With their foreheads together, their lips barely touching, he enters her. Kelsea throws her head back not seeming to care as she smacks it on the floor, her mouth open in a silent scream, baring her throat to him. As she digs her nails into his shoulders, he presses a gentle kiss to her pulse point making her arch up to him.

Unable to control it, her eyes darken and her fangs lengthen. He pauses for a moment to run his thumbs over the veins beneath her eyes and she lets out a whine, wrapping her legs around his waist. He growls but she just sinks her fangs into his shoulder until he moves within her again.

She moans, writhes, and arches beneath him (_for him_).

Klaus pulls the straps of her nightgown down her shoulders, her breasts are nothing new to him (_having seen them a fair few times before_) but never like this, heaving before him aching to be touched. He rests his head between her neck and shoulder, heaving out a sigh, his teeth_ aching_ to sink into the soft skin of her throat.

There are bites that heal (_hers_) and bites that don't (_his_). Kelsea rakes her nails down his back, intent on leaving a mark, even if it's just for a short time in his very long life.

"Nik," Kelsea draws out his name (_it sounds like sin on her lips)_ as she comes undone, clinging to him with enough force to break bones. It proves to be too much and he follows soon after with an animalistic growl deep in his throat.

The moment he's finished Klaus realizes this is _not_ the way he intended to take her.

VV

Kelsea counts tiles on the ceiling above the foyer while Klaus lay above her, his head still nestled between her neck and shoulder while she traces random patterns up and down his back, her other hand tangled in the curls at the nape of his neck. He's getting heavy but she says nothing.

Neither say anything, they just listen to the others breathing while the allover warmth from her orgasm fades and the cold chill of the floor seeps into her body. _She makes no move._

Klaus eventually shifts his weight and Kelsea flinches. He reluctantly sits up, kneeling between her legs and she sees the blood smeared across his chest. She looks down at her own and spots the un-healing bite on the underside of her breast. Klaus tilts his head to the side (_like a dog_) to watch her as he zips up his jeans. She holds her breath, praying that he won't be that cruel to her. _Not after that._

He sits back on his heels for a moment still considering her before cradling her head in his hand, leading her up to his neck. Relief floods through Kelsea as she sinks her fangs into his throat drinking as much of his blood as she can before the wound heals. With a hand fisted in her hair, he pulls her head back to crash his lips against hers when she's had enough.

_All possessive and demanding. Warm and protective_._ So very him._

VV

Klaus finds her the next morning at the park not far from their house. She's on the swing set, facing away from him, pumping her legs to go as high as she can before leaning back so the ends of her hair drag the ground, her body straight and her eyes closed.

She's still in her blood stained nightgown, hair sex tousled and her feet bare._ It's the most beautiful thing he's seen in a while_.

"I know you're there," Kelsea whispers but he still hears from across the park where he's leaned against a large maple that Henry climbed with Kelsea not too long ago. They had snuck out of the house (_he heard_) on a Saturday and climbed the tree when he walked around the corner of the park (_he saw_). He 'searched' for them and was headed back home when Kelsea giggled, giving them away. _She never was any good at playing hide and seek._

Klaus sits on the swing beside her while she pulls herself up and drags her feet in the gravel to slow down.

"Got a cigarette?" Kelsea asks mischievously when she comes to a stop, eyeing the no smoking signs posted around the park. He reaches into the breast pocket of his jacket and pulls out a crumpled pack (_from the last time the jacket was in style_). "I was kidding."

Klaus pulls one out anyway to give him something to do with his hands. She reaches over, taking the last cigarette and the antique trench lighter from his hand, flipping it over to look at the initials etched on the bottom.

"J.C.E.?"

"I found it in the trenches during the First World War." She raises her eyebrow skeptically so he starts over, "I took it off the body of a soldier that I killed in the trenches during the First World War."

"I know what you are. I'm one too remember," she hands him back the lighter. "You don't have to censor yourself."

They fall into an uncomfortable silence, letting the smoke fill their lungs as the sun starts to peak just above the horizon bathing her in an ethereal light (_forgiving her sins_). The smoke from the cigarette is nearly invisible as is the blood staining her nightgown.

_The sun._ It takes him a moment (_but the panic still rises in his chest_) before he notices his old daylight ring on her thumb. He quietly breathes a sigh of relief. _That reminds him…_

"I haven't missed this." She holds up her cigarette, contemplating it, breaking the silence.

"Why did you leave?" he asks abruptly (_finally_) still unhappy about finding his bed empty after they fucked themselves to sleep.

"I needed to think."

"Why couldn't you think at home?" _It sounded less petulant in his mind._

"You were there." He shoots her a scowl. "Naked," she adds turning it into a smirk. "And the only thing I could think about was fucking you since I'm so goddamn_ horny_ right now. And I needed to _think_, really think."

"Are you leaving?"

"No," she groans out, tipping her head back to look at the sky. "I'm not leaving. I just…I love you. I've loved you from the moment we met in the grocery store. You were true friend when I needed one the most and you've taken care of me and Henry, more than any friend should. Then you tell me you just wanted me around for Henry but now you don't want me to _leave_," she pauses taking a breath. "And you've never seemed to reciprocate my feelings before even though Rebekah, Elijah and even Kol _told_ me that you loved me. I laughed them off thinking 'No Nik wouldn't drag it out for seven fucking years if he really had feelings for me'. Then the other night happened and last night happened and… I'm _confused_."

Leaning over to stub out her cigarette on a rock, he sees the tears running down her cheeks but she refuses to look at him and instead focuses her gaze on the rising sun.

This was not part of the plan. Her loving him was not part of the plan. _But really, since when did his plans ever go right._

Klaus can't deny it now. He can't slip on rose colored glasses and pretend nothing has changed. Sure he could compel her to forget last night, the past few days, the past few years but he _can't. _As much as he hates to admit it, as much as he pretends not to care, he loves her. Maybe even more than he loved Tatia and he truly loved her.

Caroline was an obsession, a game that he lost. See how hard and fast he could get her to fall for him, the enemy. _Prove Mikael wrong_. He did truly fancy her though, but not love. Katerina once told Elijah that true love was not real unless it was returned, he sees that now. She would have never loved him, not truly.

_After Caroline he resolved himself into believing that no one could ever love him._

But Kelsea does.

Klaus hates the thought of Kelsea leaving, not being a part of his life; it made him physically _ache_ when he killed her. Kelsea makes everything better (_brighter_), she made his house a home, drew his family back together after all the hurt and pain he caused them, gave him Henry.

_Made his life whole._

After a thousand years of searching for some semblance of _real_ love, Klaus finds it with this girl, her friendly smile and genuine kindness captivating him the moment he met her (_whether he admitted it or not_).

_He can't lose that._

Klaus crouches in front of her and takes her face in his hands, making her look at him as he wipes the tears from her cheeks. "Are you going to compel me?" Kelsea asks, her voice a whisper as new tears fall onto the back of his hands. Her eyes focus on his mouth, fiddling with the ring.

His eyebrows knit together, hurt that she would even ask that. "No, my love." Her eyes flick up to meet his, a small smile tugs at her lips. Kelsea gives him a chaste kiss and rests her forehead against his, her hands coming up to cup his face too.

"Say it again," she murmurs.

"_My _love."

VV

Kelsea is in the kitchen kneading bread dough on the butcher block counter of the island when Klaus comes home from town. She returned to a day schedule in the three days since Klaus turned back and feels far more comfortable with both him and Rebekah around to keep her from eating Henry (_not to mention she has moved into Klaus' room_). That is her biggest fear, eating Henry or anyone really. It irritates him, her denying her nature by drinking cold blood bags but he says nothing this is the way she chooses to cope (_and he doesn't want her to eat Henry either_).

She had also taken possession of his ring, allowing her to work under the glass ceiling of the kitchen (_her sanctuary_) for the first time in days.

Klaus takes off his coat, draping it over the back of a chair in the dining room on his way to the kitchen. He sits on a stool on the other side of the island and holds out a little black box.

"Really?" She holds up her dough covered hands in exasperation and Klaus flips open the box to reveal a beautiful lapis lazuli ring he had made for her at the (_soon to be closed_) jewelers a few blocks away. The silver band was made to look antique and the oval stone, nearly the same shade as Henry's eyes, is held in place with swirls of silver that look like vines crawling over the rock.

"Nik it's beautiful!" Kelsea comes around the island and pulls him into a hug as best she can with keeping her doughy hands off of him.

"A witch will be here soon to put a spell on it."

"Then I can walk in the sun with a ring that fits!" Kelsea sing songs as she nearly bounces to the other side of the island**. **He watches as she rolls the dough until it is smooth and puts it in a bowl, moving with such grace and fluidity around the kitchen (_something he had never really noticed before_). She shoves it into the refrigerator and washes her hands to swipe the box away from him. She slips the ring on her right ring finger to admire it.

"It's one of a kind, I made sure of that."

"What did you do?" Kelsea sighs, looking up at him in exasperation.

"Nothing…much," Klaus holds up his hands, feigning innocence. "The artist killed himself, what kind of vampire would I be if I had let his blood go to waste."

"You're kidding?"

He smiles, "I'm only half kidding."

"About which part?" His smile widens into a wolfish grin. "Are you going to kill the witch when she's done too?"

"Only if you want me too, my love."

VV

"Why do you have two sets of fangs?" she asks lazily tracing a line between the moles (_beauty marks her mom used to call them) _on his throat.

"Werewolf side," he states simply, pulling her hand away from his neck. She shoots him a dirty look and he smiles. Kelsea curls along his side, resting her head against his bare chest to listen to his heartbeat, wondering how many times in his life it has beat.

Somewhere she heard that the heart beats about three billion times in the average life time. Average life time is say…eighty. Klaus is about a thousand… Eighty into a thousand is…"Eight into ten…"

"One point two five," Klaus supplies for her, obviously having done the math before. "Times three is three point seven five. So about-"

"Thirty eight billion times- ish." He chuckles and she drops a kiss to his chest just over his heart.

VV

Elijah finds out when he comes home a few months after she is turned. He slips in the house early in the morning, with nothing more than a briefcase, when he knows everyone should still be asleep.

_He was wrong._

The moment Elijah steps in the foyer he can hear Kelsea upstairs groaning, in pain he thinks.

_He was wrong. _

Afraid that Klaus has grown tired of playing family and is toying with his food before eating her, he speeds up the stairs and throws open the door to her bedroom only to find it empty and immaculate. She moans again and in the next second he opens the door to Klaus' room.

_Found her._

"Oh god!" Kelsea groans out, he's not sure if it his presents or the pleasure racking through her body as she lies with her head hanging over the end of the bed, Klaus' fangs deep in her breast. The blood fills the veins beneath her eyes and her fangs nick her bottom lip as she speaks. Elijah purses his lips in anger. _He turned her._ Klaus could never control his temper, given enough time he always broke his toys even as a child. Elijah was naïve to believe this girl would be any different.

All the bedding had been shoved to the floor save for a pillow beneath Kelsea's hips but she doesn't realize this and gropes around for something to cover herself with. "Nik!" she smacks at his shoulder but he just grunts in response, intent on finding his own release.

It reminds him of poor innocent Mary, the shyest girl in the village with the widest smile (_ruined by their family_). Niklaus had to have Mary (_thinking he was in love_) then soon grew tired of her after he already turned her (_realized he wasn't_) and foisted her off to whoever wanted her (_Kol_). But this one he really loves, Elijah just hopes he doesn't grow tired of her.

Klaus grabs a fist full of Kelsea's hair and tugs, making her arch up to him. She beats her fists against his chest and he captures both her wrists in one hand before sinking his teeth into her exposed throat. He growls low in his throat and his body goes rigid as he comes undone.

Elijah just watches as he licks the blood from her throat, their eyes meeting over her head when Klaus sits her up so her back is to Elijah (_giving her the modesty she so desperately wanted_). Klaus smirks as he sits back on his heels, unconsciously patting Kelsea's thighs, and still breathing heavy. He raises his eyebrows in expectation.

"Niklaus, a word." Elijah slips out of the room, closing the door quietly behind him, listening as all hell breaks loose in the bedroom.

"_Goddamn it Nik! Why the fuck didn't you stop?"_

"_It's nothing he hasn't seen before, my love."_

"_Is that supposed to make me feel better? 'Cause it doesn't! Don't smile at me like that. Don't touch me either! I need your blood. Do not fuck with me Nik, I need it. Do you want me to die? Hmm? I told you not to touch me. No! Stop it! Fuck you!" _

The door slams and Kelsea speeds into the study (_pulling on one of Klaus' shirts)_ where Elijah stands flipping through one of the sketchbooks, the snapshots of their life documented by hand.

"Hello," she says shyly, plopping down on the leather couch and pulling out the neck of the shirt to watch the bites on her chest heal. It's a relief to him to find that she hasn't changed, hasn't turned it off.

"You have blood." He motions to his own face and Kelsea quickly wipes it away from the corner of her mouth with the pad of her thumb, blushing as she licks it off.

"How have you been?" Kelsea smiles playfully and he knows what she is doing so he humors her.

"I have been really well actually, and you?"

"Been better, been a whole lot worse too." He leans against the table facing her, saying nothing just waiting for her to break. _He knows she will._ "A few months… it's been a few months since I was turned." She stands and walks over to lay a hand on his arm. "We were going to tell you, I prom- that son of a bitch!"

She shoves him out of the way and takes a drawing in her hand, the one of her breastfeeding Henry and stares at it in open mouthed shock. "I can believe he fucking drew this!" Even for her harsh words she gently runs her fingers over the lines of the baby's face, careful not to smudge the charcoal.

"I was having a bitch of a time feeding Henry in the rocking chair, these hummers," she motions to her chest in annoyance, feeling the need to explain the drawing. "Were trying to suffocate his little face. He was crying and I was crying then Nik took me to his room, calmed us both down. At least me, Henry was starving. Then arranged his pillows on my lap and helped me position my boobs and Henry so it was easier for the both of us," Kelsea pauses fiddling with the hem on the shirt. "I think I loved him then, but it could have just been the hormones." She smiles slyly and glances at the ceiling, intent on provoking Klaus.

Elijah softly raps his knuckles against the table, tilting his head to contemplate her. "For many years Niklaus… and I, we did not believe in love, too much pain and resentment surrounding the word that we simply chose not to believe it existed, thought it made us weak to care…"

"But you were wrong."

"Very wrong." Elijah smiles and Kelsea takes his hand, squeezing tightly as if to comfort him. He understands what drew Klaus to her like a moth to a flame, the warmth and light (_it drew him in also_).

"He loves me… in his own sick fucking twisted way." The door upstairs slams open and she kisses Elijah's cheek before speeding out of the room, only to be caught a few seconds later judging by her laughing scream from the backyard.

Elijah shakes his head and closes the sketchbook on a picture of Kelsea sleeping beneath rumpled sheets, hoping Niklaus knows what he is doing with her.

VV

Kelsea stands on his bed (_their bed_) trying to read the framed letters above it, the scrawling cursive hard to read after so many years. The door creaks open and Klaus soon stands beside the bed watching her. She can't read his face but sees his eyebrows twitch slightly into a frown before smoothing out again.

"What are they?"

He pauses for a beat. "Love letters."

"To you?"

"No." Kelsea looks between him and the letters a few times. She opens her mouth to speak but at the look he gives her, promptly shuts it. Giving the letters one last look she steps off the bed and into his arms.

_She'll get the story someday, she expects it._


	5. Part 3: Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:**Sam as before. Lyrics belong to Sam the Sham

_**A/N: **_Shorter one here but more Henry. Thanks Everyone for the favorites and alerts. Reviews make the world go 'round. :)

**Who You Are and What You Could Have Been**

**Part 3: Chapter 1**

_What a big heart I have-the better to love you with  
Little Red Riding Hood  
Even bad wolves can be good_

Henry is twelve when he finds out. All gangly and awkward like the rest of the children his age. He has let his hair grow into a thick mop of black curls and is nearly as tall as Klaus. Every time Kelsea looks at him she sees his father but the moment he opens his mouth she hears Klaus. _Charmingly funny and quick witted._

He's more brain then brawn (_though he inherited his father's broad shoulders_) and is at the top of his class (_somewhere she never was_). It amazes her everyday how much Klaus has taught him and she knows that he would not be the person that he is now if it wasn't for Klaus. _Neither of them would be._

It took her a few years but she worked on her control, forced herself not to (_constantly_) think about the blood pumping through his veins. Klaus wasn't much help, coming home in blood stained clothes, drops of blood running tantalizingly down his neck, trying to entice her into hunting with him (_it didn't work)._

_She refuses to be a monster._

VV

It is Christmas break (_which always screws her up_) and Henry spends less time locked up with Klaus when he isn't in school. He stands in the dining room (_for how long she doesn't know_) watching her suck down a blood bag in the kitchen as she waits for the oven to preheat.

"Mom?"Kelsea nearly screams, his voice startling her. She hides the bag behind her back as she turns to look at him. He leans to the side to look at the blood dripping over her hand as she squeezes the bag too tight.

"Henry," she starts, looking at the floor (_the first time she has been ashamed of what she is_). Kelsea puts the bag in the sink (_out of sight_) and rinses the blood off her hands.

_Oh god. Oh god. Oh god._

Kelsea reaches out but afraid he will flinch or pull away she drops her hands to her sides. He sits in Elijah's spot at the table and she sinks down into Klaus', whishing he was there to explain but he is out in the trees behind the house. _Chasing bunnies is what she says, teasing him._

Starting from the moment she met Klaus in the grocery store she tells Henry _everything_, what he is, what Klaus is, what she now is; only glossing over the gory details of her death. He disserves to know, it is his life and she refuses to compel her son.

Henry sits quietly, his hands folded in his lap while he stares out the window, a range of emotions flashing across his face (_fear and anger the most prominent_) as he listens to the story. She now knows what Rebekah and Klaus felt like, the apprehension, the dread that he will not accept them…

"It explains a lot you know," he smiles slightly when she is finished. "Why we're so weird."

"How are we weird?" she asks mildly affronted, letting out a quiet sigh of relief.

"I live with my mother, her 'friend'," he pauses when Kelsea laughs at his air quotes and looks at her pointedly. "Who she is now fucking on a regular basis."

"You know?"

"The walls are thick but not that thick."

She drops her head to the table, her cheeks as red as the burgundy walls. "Back to our weird family, _please_."

"And his half siblings who live here on and off and who all haven't seemed to age since I was born," he says with mock surprise.

"You are too observant for your own good." Kelsea shakes her head with a small smile tugging at her lips. "How are you taking this so well? I threw a hissy fit after I found out… Nik didn't already tell you, did he?"

"No, but he hinted at it."

"Bastard," she pauses for a moment. "I love you so much."

"Love you too, mom," Henry rolls his eyes as leans over the table to hug her.

She pulls back slightly. "You're not afraid?"

"You haven't eaten me yet."

VV

Henry told Kelsea the truth. It did explain a lot, them being vampires (_and a hybrid_), that strange night when he was seven, Klaus speaking of a curse with a wink and a sly smile, Rebekah's inability to remember how to use most electronic devices (_minus her cell phone and the microwave_) from day to day. _He really should have seen it, the moons on his ceiling and the dark red dining room, it was all so obvious._

The thing that irritates him the most (_not the fact they forgot to mention he was a werewolf or that they were vampires_) was Klaus and Kelsea keeping their relationship from him. It not like he really cares, it doesn't change anything. He's happy for them and now that he thinks about it they have been far happier since that week she moved into Elijah's room.

They could be quieter about_ it _though.

It makes him laugh now as he remembers that they were vampires (_or slayers_) for three Halloweens in a row, Dracula with Lucy and Mina (_they dyed Klaus' hair black_), the Cullens (_Rebekah covered everyone with glitter_) and his personal favorite Buffy, Willow and Spike (_they bleached his hair_).

He imagines what the neighbors or anyone on the outside must think about their 'family'. _They are like the fucking Addams Family… and he loves it._

VV

Kelsea stands naked in front of the large floor length mirror in the bathroom off Klaus' room scrutinizing her body. She always saw vampires in movies and TV shows as beautiful flawless creatures (_hell she lives with a few of them_) but her reality is much different.

Even after seven years Kelsea still hates the flaws that _forever _mar her body, the sliver stretch marks across her belly and hips from Henry, her breasts are not quite as perky as they once were, and the curve to her belly that she could never get rid of no matter how much she dieted and exercised.

Klaus slips in the room as she turns to look at her ass, frowning at the puddle of water beneath her feet.

"Why couldn't you have told me you were going to turn me? Give me some time to get a tummy tuck maybe some lipo," Kelsea jokes but the smile reflected back at her is pained.

Klaus speeds over to her and pulls her back against his chest. "That is why it is taking you so long to come to bed?" he murmurs against the skin on her neck, lightly running his fingers over the scars on her belly. He catches her eyes in the mirror. "Counting your flaws?"

The ways he says it brings tears to her eyes, makes her feel guilty for even feeling that way about her body.

_He ravishes her that night. _

VV

They sit on the bench outside the principal's office with Henry, now fourteen, waiting to discuss his behavior in class (_he was correcting the teachers, they didn't like it)._ Kelsea smiles at the fact her baby is so smart that he is correcting people.

Klaus (_calm and proud_) rests his hand on Kelsea's (_anxious and proud_) knee, squeezing lightly as she bounces it. She spent many an afternoon sitting on a bench very much like this with her mother when she was in high school, none of which are her proudest moments. It's not her in the hot seat today but she can't shake that anxiety. _Principals are still scary._

"What's the worst they can do, hmm? Kick him out for being too smart?" Klaus grins while Henry chuckles on her other side before they slip back into silence.

Kelsea twists her daylight ring around her finger and glancing around at the guys either side of her, moves it to the opposite hand_. The left_. She pauses a moment holding it out in front of her, admiring it on _that_ finger. _Wishful thinking._

Klaus shifts beside her, glancing down at her hands. Blushing, she starts to move it back but his hand covers hers, stilling her movements. He threads his fingers through hers and squeezes lightly, his lips pulling up in a small smile.

"Mr. and Mrs. Kroe?" The door to the principal's office opens as Kelsea leans over kissing Klaus soundly on the lips.

"That's us," Klaus answers and Kelsea can't help but kiss him again.

VV

Kol shows up again on Henry's sixteenth birthday a compelled girl in one arm and a case of booze in the other. _Now that Henry is old enough to be fun, he says._

He crashes the party, fights with Rebekah, is caught with the star quarterback's girlfriend in the upstairs bathroom and then fights with the said football player on the front lawn, all within the first half hour (_a record Rebekah says before storming up to her room_).

Kol is spread out on the couch with the girl sitting primly beside him when Klaus and Kelsea are finished compelling the guests to forget the last act of the party.

"Why are you here?" Kelsea snaps sinking down in the chair opposite him while Klaus sits on the arm (_the events leading up to the 'spaghetti incident' never really forgotten_).

"I told you, Henry is fun now," Kol says like it's the most logical thing in the world. "Henry! My boy!" he hollers when he catches sight of him trudging up the stairs. Henry pauses, takes a deep breath and slips into the living room, standing by Klaus. "Are you a virgin?"

Henry nearly chokes.

"I'll take that as a yes. This is…well it doesn't matter what her name is…call her what you want. She's my gift to you." Kol stands, pushing the girl towards Henry.

"No, no, no! He is not losing his virginity to some skank you found on the street!"

"Why not? She's perfectly healthy, aren't you love?" The girl nods her head robotically. "And she's been compelled, perfect!"

"Kol," Klaus starts.

"It's how I did it!"

"What, you had to be compelled?" Kelsea asks trying to keep the smile off her face.

The retort sputters and dies in his throat, his cheeks turning pink. "No!" Kol's voice takes on a whine that brings a smile to Klaus' face. "Shut up Nik!"

VV

Klaus sets the book on the table beside the couch and turns to face Henry as he works on his geometry homework.

"Are you going to prom?"

Henry frowns and slowly raises his head to look at Klaus, quite sure his pseudo father has gone insane. "I hadn't planned on it, _why_?"

"You should take Rebekah, she would like that."

VV

"Are you sure about this dress?" Rebekah twirls in front of the floor length mirror in her room, watching as the skirt of the shiny teal dress swirls around her bare feet.

"Yes! You look beautiful!"

"Really?" she asks, the last two dances Rebekah tried to go to she ended up staked instead, she just wasn't _sure_.

"Rebekah," Kelsea catches her eye in the mirror, resting her head on Rebekah's shoulder. "You look beautiful." Kelsea smiles gently and kisses her cheek before adding, "And we already did your makeup to match this dress."

VV

Rebekah takes a breath at the top of the stairs. She is ready. She will be fine. It will be fine. Nothing to worry about, Klaus had long since stopped using the dagger threat against them and he wouldn't be that cruel to use it on her _now_ (_she hopes_). The first step is the hardest but she hikes up the bottom of her dress and quickly descends the rest of the stairs before she can think about it any longer.

Everyone is waiting in the foyer where Kelsea twirls around in front of Klaus, trying to entice him into dancing with her to whatever record he (_she_) had put on for the evening.

It's sweet really, how Klaus is with Kelsea (_she's a much better fit than that blonde bitch_), he is much more the Niklaus she used to know (_before they turned_). It's easier to make him smile or laugh with no one hunting them and Kelsea by his side. He is surrounded and loved by a family (_what he always wanted)._ A constant worry of Elijah's is that he will soon tire of her but he wasn't there for the fight, he didn't see the aftermath (_the depression, pain, anger_). Nik is too afraid of being alone that the only way he would get rid of her now (_if he did tire of her_) would be her leaving and Rebekah doesn't see that happening anytime soon (_if ever_).

Kelsea lets out a laugh when Klaus finally humors her and pulls her against his chest, rocking with her to the music.

Henry stands leaning against the wall in the foyer, his hands shoved deeply into the pockets of his slacks as he sways slightly to the music, looking handsome. His short black curls are tamed by a fair amount of jell and a beaded bracelet from Kol peeks out from under his suit sleeve.

Rebekah loves Henry more than she ever thought she would, he is her baby as much as he is Kelsea's. She was his best friend when he was a child, his secret keeper (_she doesn't know if Kelsea ever found out about his third grade girlfriend_). They played outside for hours and watched every kid's movie for the first time together then he hit puberty and Kol and Klaus were much more appealing to divulge his inner most thoughts to (_and he no longer wanted to play tag_).

He glances up and gives her a wolfish grin before sticking his tongue out at her. Rebekah does the same in return and sweeps into the room breaking up Klaus' and Kelsea's dance.

"Oh you're so beautiful!" Kelsea squeals pulling a razor thin camera from the pocket of her jeans. She ushers them together but before she can take a picture Rebekah licks her thumb and wipes dirt off Henry's cheek (_so very motherly that it scares her_).

Kol suddenly swings around the corner into the foyer dressed in a suit. "Kelsea! Tell me how handsome I am!"

VV

"I hate you! You ruined everything!" Rebekah screeches at Kol as she walks up the driveway, the limo they rented following close behind with Kol hanging out of the moon roof, a bottle of champagne in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other.

"Come now 'Bekah, he disserved it!"

"He did not! We were just dancing!"

"Not from where I was standing, looked more like you were fucking. I'm sorry if I don't want my good family name drug through the mud because you are a harlot!"

"That's how people dance these days Kol! If you weren't a nineteenth century reverted freak you would know that!" Rebekah slams the front door closed to end the argument, startling Kelsea who pops up on the couch holding a blanket over her chest. "How was it?" she asks eyeing her carefully.

Rebekah grins. "Fantastic."

VV

Henry sighs as he taps his pencil against the notebook. The study session was completely ruined by his newest girlfriend and her incessant chattering. He knew he shouldn't have listened to Kol. She was hot and all but seriously!

"And Shelby was all 'No I saw him first' and I told Cara that I wasn't getting involved…" He tries to tune her out, but he just _can't_. He focuses on her body instead of her mouth moving._ It was much better for other things; Kol was at least right about that._

She has a nice rack. _What Kol had noticed._

Her hair is a pale blonde. _Klaus' type of prey._

_Rebekah and Kelsea would hate her. Kol would try to eat her and may be Klaus…_

Henry leans over and kisses her soundly on the lips to shut her up. He pulls back watching as she flushes nicely.

"Why don't you come to dinner tonight and meet my family." He grins, wolfishly.

"Really?" she squeals throwing her arms around his neck.

VV

"Where do you want to go?" Klaus asks out of the blue one night, closing the book he was reading and setting it on the nightstand to wait for her answer.

Kelsea frowns at her reflection in the mirror of the vanity that had (_quite a while ago_) been moved to his (_their_) room. "What do you mean?"

"When we leave here where do you want to go?"

"When are we leaving?" she asks, crawling up the bed, panic lacing her tone.

"You didn't expect to live here forever did you, my love?" He tucks a loose strand of her hair that had fallen out of the messy bun, behind her ear.

"I haven't thought about it," Kelsea answers honestly, slapping his hand away when he fingers the strap on the skimpy nightgown Rebekah insisted she buy (_the kind that make boys go dumb she had said_). She thinks for a moment. "Can we go to the Louvre?"

Klaus chuckles. "You don't have to ask, just tell me where you want to go."

"Ok, I want to go to the Louvre," she says with a decisive nod as she lies beside him, watching the ceiling. "Can we compel the guards to let us in at night so we are the only ones?"

"Of course, whatever you want."

"Ok." She nods again. "But we can keep the house right?"

He grins, dimples showing, making her smile. "If that's what you want, sweetheart."


	6. Part 3: Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** Same...Same

**_A/N:_ **_So close to the end now, this could have been the end but I had to add an epilogue to tell whats been happening in anothers life. ;)_

**Who You Are and What You Could Have Been**

**Part 3: Chapter 2**

Henry decides to turn after he is finished with college (_not wanting to rip through half the freshman class_), whenever that may be. It was never a choice of_ if_ he wanted to turn, he always knew he would, it was just a matter of _when_ and everyone seemed to have a different opinion on when that should be.

It is his decision to make (_Kelsea makes sure of that_),she and Klaus fight for weeks (_days really but it feels like weeks_). Henry had seen them fight before but never like this, sure Klaus would pitch a fit or Kelsea would get twitchy over something but never an all out bloodbath.

It starts with a screaming match in the middle of the night.

_("You are not fucking turning him, he is my son damnit! He will not be a seventeen year old boy forever!"_

"_I can do what I want with him!"_

"_He is not your son!" _

"_I paid for his fucking life he might as well be!")_

The cops burst in then (_having been called by the neighbors_) to find them in the living room both naked (_this conversation having started as pillow talk apparently_) and Kelsea over Klaus, stabbing him repeatedly with a letter opener. Elijah compels the cops and sends them on their way, then ushers Henry back into his room (_knowing that this could turn ugly_).

_He is right_.

Everything goes quiet, Klaus sulks around the house biting and ripping out body parts (_mostly Kol's_) and dropping them at Kelsea's feet while she just throws dishes (_at him_) and slams doors (_in his face_) for the first few days.

On the third day Kelsea jumps on Klaus' back (_unprovoked_) and tears into his throat so much so that he isn't able to talk properly for half an hour. Kol can't bite back his laughter when Klaus lets out a high pitched 'fuck' and Klaus pulls out his spine in return. He drops a portion of the bone on the floor in front of Kelsea as if to say 'Look what I can do'.

She just snarls.

On the fifth day Klaus bites her (_unprovoked_). They all act like it didn't happen assuming that he would heal her but as the hours tick by and there is no sign of Klaus (_he had turned and hid in the woods_) they all start to panic (_even Elijah in his own way_). That night she starts hallucinating and nearly eats Henry thinking he is his father. By morning she is on the brink of death, too weak to do anything but cry and tell Henry how much she loves him, when a tumbler full of blood appears on the dresser by the door in her room.

It ends there, neither apologizes for their actions but Klaus tells Henry it is his decision.

VV

Klaus slinks into the kitchen a few days later as Kelsea washes the breakfast dishes, nuzzling her neck and biting her shoulder with blunt teeth (_his form of an apology_). Henry scowls and stabs at what is left of his pancake when she relaxes into his touch like nothing has happened.

"How can you forgive him so soon? He just tried to kill you yesterday!" Henry throws his plate across the room, hitting Klaus in the back of the head (_those years of little league paid off_).

Kelsea places herself in front of Klaus (_wanting to protect him_). "Henry, please…"

"No don't 'Henry' me! I want to know why you can forgive him so easily after he nearly let you die!"

"But he didn't," she whispers, reaching back to hold Klaus' hand. He squeezes it lightly and slips from the room leaving mother and son to settle this.

Kelsea sits at the small table in the corner and pulls Henry down in the chair beside her. "I can't not forgive him, honey," she speaks calmly and softly, having dealt with werewolves (_his father, Klaus)_ and their rage before. "I may seem like we are acting like nothing happened and in a way we are. It happened and we are moving on, why waste time on anger?"

Henry grunts, refusing to look at her, instead his eyes focus on her hands over his as she soothingly strokes his knuckles with her thumbs. "It's funny to hear a vampire talk about wasting time."

"It is, since I have so much of it," Kelsea smiles. "But I don't want to spend my time in anger and pain when love and happiness are so much better. It happened and there is nothing I can do to change it…or him," she pauses for a moment considering him. "I'm not afraid to die either, I've done it once already and it wasn't that bad. Waking up was a little fucking freaky though." Henry lets out a chuckle against his will. "You don't have to forgive him right away, I don't expect you to, just _please_ don't hate him."

VV

"Uncle 'lijah?" Henry knocks lightly as he pushes the door open. Elijah looks at him over the book he is reading and motions for him to enter. He hasn't been in Elijah's room much, once or twice as a child, maybe. His clearest memory was on Christmas morning when he was nine and ran from room to room waking everyone (_they were not thrilled_).

It hadn't changed much since then, a few more pictures, one of the family that they had taken a few years ago and one of Elijah and Henry coloring together when he was six sit on the dresser with a watch and a few books. The room is calming compared to the bright pink of Rebekah's and the toxic smell of beauty products that waft from Kol's room.

Henry sits uncomfortably on the end of the bed, facing Elijah as he sits in a chair beside the window. "Why does mom not want me to hate Nik?"

Elijah watches him for a moment as he closes the book he has no doubt read more than five times. "Do you?"

"Hate him? I don't know, I mean he's still Nik but mom almost died because of him."

"But she has already died at his hands. Do you hate him for that?"

"Well… no. But mom said he didn't mean it then."

"Do you think he meant it this time?"

"I… I don't know."

"I believe," Elijah pauses, choosing the right words. "That no one will ever know what goes on in Niklaus mind, sometimes even Niklaus himself. But in our anger we say things and do things to the people we love the most that we come to regret." Elijah looks at Henry knowingly. "As for Kelsea not wanting you to hate him, your mother loves him so deeply and knowing his past with our father, does not want him to hurt, even if it hurts her. She wants to protect him in the way our mother never did."

Henry stares at his feet. "Do you think she trusts him?"

"To an extent. With her he found a partner that keeps him grounded, someone he trusts with even his deepest secretsand he wouldn't readily give that up."

"He loves her?"

"Yes. As deeply as she loves him."

VV

Henry slips in the study, the first time in weeks (_since Klaus bit Kelsea_) and sets his backpack on the floor with a dull thud. Klaus looks at him over the newspaper and shifts over to give Henry enough room to sit on the couch. Henry fiddles with the sleeve of his shirt before pulling out his history book and laying it on the coffee table, open to the section he was to study.

"Vietnam…"

Klaus closes the paper and pulls his leg up onto the couch to turn and face Henry, trying to remember where he was at the time. "I was in San Francisco-"

"You were a hippie?" Henry laughs.

Klaus grins, "How could I say no to beautiful women into free love and mind altering drugs?"

VV

Klaus watches as the liquid runs down her chin, dripping down onto her shirt, staining the white fabric. _He wishes it was red rather than pink._

Kelsea lets out a slurping noise as she bites into another piece of watermelon, more juice trickling from her mouth as she tries not to spit out the fruit as she laughs. They sit on the back patio watching as Rebekah chases Henry and Kol around the yard with a water gun twice the size of theirs. It is hot, unseasonably hot and Rebekah had bought the water guns for some relief. Henry had graduated from high school that spring and they were enjoying their time together before he went off to college (_whenever that may be_).

Rebekah slips on the wet grass, twisting (_like a cat_) she lands on her back and groans in pain (_playing possum_). Henry rushes over and leans down to see if she is alright only to get sprayed in the face with water. Rebekah cackles and speeds to the other side of the yard while he curses and swears vengeance.

Klaus likes that Henry is as compassionate as his mother and not the ripper he had originally planned for him to be_ (he would have never been like Stefan, anyway)_.

Sure he and Klaus shared the same dark humor but Henry is not cruel, only to those who hurt his family or someone innocent (_like Kelsea_). The previous year a jock had been bullying a boy that Henry played chess with during lunch, calling him names, pushing him around. Henry beat the shit out of him. His anger got the best of him and the boy was in the hospital for a week. Klaus had to compel the school not to suspend Henry and the parents of the boy not to press charges. Henry was sick about it.

_("I could have killed him."_

"_Yes."_

_A pause. "Have you ever turned a werewolf that hadn't triggered the curse?"_

"_No, I haven't.")_

Klaus knows that Henry would not be who he is without Kelsea, had he killed her or sent her on her way like he planned. _Neither of them would be._

Kelsea is the one that drew his family back together and he is the one that could destroy it all. Klaus very nearly killed her and he knows that everyone (_including himself_) would have hated him and left, she is the glue that holds them all together (_holds him together_).

_He doesn't know if he could survive losing her._

Kelsea showed him that he could be loved, told him he wasn't really a monster, the big bad wolf (_maybe she was right_).

"Hey," Kelsea says, startling him. She reaches over to run a sticky finger over the crease between his brows. "Quit thinking so hard."

Klaus grabs her hand and pulls her into his lap to suck the offending digit in his mouth. She giggles and tries to pull away but he holds her there as he kisses up her arm.

"That tickles!" she squeals unable to hide the laugh in her voice. He nips at her shoulder before running his stubbly cheek over the skin. Kelsea fights against him, which is only effective in knocking over the lawn chair and sending them sprawling on the grass. He holds her tight against him, needing to just _feel_ her for a moment and she senses the shift in his mood and lets him.

_Maybe she was right._

VV

"I'm going to be _thirty-nine_," Kelsea tilts her head back on the pink comforter to look at Rebekah who just glances at her over the small thin computer in her lap.

"Well I'm over a thousand."

"Yours is more dramatic but every time I look in the mirror I expect my mother to be looking back at me."

"Just wait until you're eighty that will really fuck with you."

VV

Klaus watches her out of the corner of his eye for her reaction as they sit on the floor of the disserted Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg looking up at his landscape clustered in with similar paintings so unless you were looking for it, it wouldn't stand out. They were touring the museums she wanted to see (_firstly this one after she found out about his painting_) while Henry was at school.

Kelsea leans back on her elbows and crosses her legs at the ankle, her head tilted slightly to the side to contemplate the painting_ (to irritate him_).

"I like the one at home better," she says finally and he frowns. _Which ones are at home?_ She giggles when the crease between his brows deepens and runs her finger over it to smooth it out. "The one on the mantle."

Klaus makes a face. "Not my greatest work."

She leans over kissing him soundly. "To me it is."

VV

Henry triggers the curse a few months before his twenty-third birthday, five months before graduation. It wasn't an accident but it wasn't completely on purpose either, it just kind of happened.

Henry is with his mom coming out of a club in Madrid, where he was spending his Christmas break with Klaus and Kelsea on their honeymoon (_of sorts_), when they saw a man trying to rape a woman in a dark alleyway.

Klaus had long since gone back to the small apartment they were renting with his catch while Kelsea had chosen to stay with Henry, dancing and singing amongst the crowd of people, not to thinking about what Klaus was doing to the poor blonde girl (_she knew that he would never change, didn't expect him to either_).

The girl is screaming, hoarse and intermittent with sobs, as the man rips at her shirt, tearing it in half. Kelsea is the first to act, speeding down the alley and pulling him off the girl, her teeth already deep in his throat by time Henry gets there.

Henry pulls the girl to his chest, as she sobs into his shirt, thanking him in Spanish. His anger grows, filling him, consuming him like it never had before until the next thing he knows there was something long and sharp in his grip.

Kelsea screams at him to stop a moment too late and the man sags against her _dead_. A long thin piece of glass sticks out of his chest and she drops him like he burned her. Henry slumps to the ground and pulls the still sobbing girl into his lap, righting her clothes as best he can and keeping a firm grip on her to hide the fact his hands are shaking.

He feels sick. He killed someone, he actually _killed_ someone. Not to say the man didn't disserve it but he _killed_ someone, triggered the curse.

Kelsea swears and cries and swears some more as she paces the alley before finally calling Klaus to help her with the body (_she just wants him to tell her it would be alright_). He shows up moments later wiping blood from his chin to find them both on the ground, eyes closed to keep the nausea at bay. He takes care of the body and when Kelsea isn't looking, watches Henry with a sort of sick pride (_that only he can have_).

Klaus pulls the whimpering girl from his arms and compels her to forget them but not the rapist (_he likes people to be as damaged as he is_).

They all go_ home_ after that.

VV

Henry screams, beating his fists into the earth as his bones break and pop. Klaus thumps his tail against the ground in encouragement and Henry just snarls in return but it is cut short when his back snaps into an awkward angle. It is only his second time turning but the first one was a little hazy (_Kol had gotten him plastered_) but he could remember the _pain._

He rolls onto his back out of breath and fighting back tears, only half turned. Patches of thick gray fur cover his body while his lower half is horribly misshapen (_he doesn't want to look_). Klaus trots over, licking at his face (_Henry would find it creepy if he wasn't so exhausted_). He whines and lies beside him, nudging him with his wet nose. Henry bats at him in annoyance then grips a handful of thick black hair by his neck.

Henry chuckles quietly to himself as he thinks of something he asked when Klaus started walking around the house as a wolf after Henry found out.

_("Why is he black as a wolf when he has blonde hair?"_

"_To match his black heart," Kelsea told him a playful glint in her eye. Klaus dropped a dead squirrel at her feet a few moments later.)_

It's funny to him now but it could just be the pain making him delirious. Klaus bites at his hand enough to make him flinch but not enough to break the skin, shaking him from his thoughts. A pain catches Henry by surprise and he closes his eyes as his body starts to align itself in a new, foreign shape.

Klaus nuzzles him. _It will be alright._

VV

Henry finds himself back in Madrid over spring break. He wanted to see if she was ok. It was remarkably easy, charm a few people, flash some smiles and he finds her working at a restaurant a few blocks away from the club. _He doesn't even need compulsion._

She checks over her shoulder now, avoids small alleyways and has her hand fisted over something small in her pocket at all times as she walks home (_staying safe_). But her smiles don't reach her eyes and she flinches away from unexpected touch.

He aches to hold her, comfort her, and tell her it will be alright. He wants to protect her but he doesn't even know her first name.

VV

It's Natalia.

VV

Henry watches her for a few days contemplating whether or not to insert himself in her life. Something in him makes him want to know her, make her better, it is apparent to him that she has told no one and it is tearing her up inside.

Kol, in a moment of brilliance (_he was drunk_) tells him that they are all damaged, every last person on this earth, just some are a little more dented when they reach the other side.

VV

He convinces Kol to compel her to forget that night (_she got drunk and went home, nothing happened_), to take away her pain (_Henry doesn't want her to be dented_).

Henry feels better watching her the next day, laughing and smiling. He even goes into the restaurant, sitting in her section. She smiles and teases him about his horrible Spanish in broken English. Henry decides he will let her be; he can't bring himself to be a part of her life knowing what he will become. _She doesn't need that._

"You can't fix everyone," Kol murmurs on the flight back home, gripping the armrests until his knuckles turn white.

"I know."

VV

"If I run will you chase me?" Kelsea asks, playing with the necklaces around his neck. They are in Paris now, had been for a few months resuming their tour of the museums she wanted to see. The sheet drops away from her chest but she doesn't move to replace it (_having grown much more confident in the past few years_).

"Are you planning to run?" Klaus' hands come up to hold her neck, as if preparing to break it.

Kelsea smiles slyly, her hands covering his to show she's not being malicious, "Only if you chase me."

"Only if you run."

VV

The room is empty the next morning when he wakes. Everything of Kelsea's is gone, cleaned out, like she was never there. Klaus tears through half the hotel staff before remembering their conversation from the night before.

He sets the hotel ablaze and takes off after her.

VV

Klaus finds her a month later in Morocco at a nice hotel on the beach, just her type of place (_surrounded by beauty_). She stands in front of the floor length mirror trying on sun hats, dressed in only a small light dress to combat the oppressive heat. The air conditioning is broken or not even existent in the room so the balcony doors are thrown open to let in a cool breeze but she still has sweat dripping down her back.

Kelsea tosses a hat on the bed and when she looks back in the mirror he is behind her. She jumps slightly but her lips pull up into a smirk, not surprised he found her so soon. Klaus wraps one arm around her waist while the other moves the damp hair away from her neck to sink his teeth into her throat. _The start of her punishment._

Kelsea lets out a sigh and reaches back to thread her fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck but he grabs her hand instead and throws her on the bed. He takes the narrow scarf from one of the hats and ties it around her wrists to hold them above her head (_not that they could really hold her_).

He settles on top of her and kisses a path over her chest, nipping at the skin every so often. "If I run will you chase me?"

"Of course," Kelsea breathes. "But it wouldn't be fair, you're better at it." Klaus chuckles into her skin. He'll let her run, play this game, he has no doubt she will always be easy to find.

_She never was any good at playing hide and seek._


	7. Epilogue

_**A/N: **__And here is the end! In all honesty when I started this I __**never**__expected to finish it, it was just a fun thing to write, a way to express my obsession with the show I guess. :p Thank you everyone that read this, favorited it and added it to your alerts!_

_Now that all the sappy shit is out of the way… ;D This is all from Elena's point of view, so if you absolutely loathe her I feel the last chapter had a good enough ending that you don't really have to read this (but I hope you do anyway)._

_Ok finally… _

Who You are and What You Could Have Been

Epilogue

After twenty years and two daughters Elena Donovan (_née __Gilbert_) is _happy_. No vampires, no werewolves (_only seeing Stefan and Damon and Caroline and Tyler every few years_) and she hadn't seen Klaus or the rest of the Originals since that day in Mystic Falls but she is not stupid, she knows that he has hybrids watching her. She made a game out of her paranoia, watching her neighbors to see if any of them were ageing too well (_they weren't), _watching if they took too much interest in her family (_they didn't)._

It had taken her a good five years after leaving Mystic Falls to stop checking over her shoulder for a blond hybrid, though she gave blood religiously every month until her first pregnancy. Then sporadically until she was pregnant again then it just completely dropped off (_she started checking over her shoulder again_).

She doesn't hide but she doesn't dance on table tops screaming either.

Elena left Mystic Falls the day after Jeremy graduated, having only stuck around for his senior year to give him some semblance of a family. She worked at the Grill for no other reason than to give her something to do and with no big crisis to thwart, her life had turned boring. _But she thanks God for that every day._

She went to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, studied journalism, pledged to the Alpha Delta Pi sorority, and did everything she was going to before her parents died. On the outside it was almost like nothing had changed (_like those two years hadn't happened_) but it had, so much had changed that she was not the same person from before.

Elena started dating Matt again over Christmas break of her freshman year. They were hanging out when she was working at the Grill (_becoming friends again_) and he took a week off that Christmas to visit her where he asked her out to dinner. She went, not wanting to hurt his feelings, but found that she really missed him, missed her old life.

Elena loves Matt. Not quite the deep powerful love with Stefan or the crazy passionate love with Damon, but he's human. He was there for her when they buried Alaric at sea and when she picked _neither_ of the Salvatore's. He understands that a piece of her will always love them and he never pushed her to forget them and move on.

Matt's sweet and caring, he never forgets an anniversary, buys flowers for no other reason than to say 'I love you', takes her on spur of the moment road trips to watch the sunset at the beach, makes her remember why she fell in love with him during fifth grade.

But he's different now, there's a sadness there that he can't seem to shake (_having seen and lost too much_).

Matt proposed a month after she graduated and they were married a year later in their backyard. Stefan was there, standing at the back watching as Jeremy walked her down the aisle. Elena knew she made the right choice seeing him as the seventeen year old boy that her seventeen year old self had loved (_but it didn't make it any easier_). She never would have chosen to be a vampire, she wanted a life, to grow old and have children, things that Stefan could have never given her_. _He gave her a pained smile, a quick hug and was gone before they cut the cake.

Damon showed up a week later dressed for the wedding , reeking of stale liquor and cheap women. It proved to be a good reminder of just how unstable Damon could be. She put him to bed on the couch and he was gone the moment he was sober enough to walk out the door (upright).

Elena didn't see them again until they found out (_from Caroline_) that she was pregnant. They both showed up her doorstep (_together_) and swore to protect her children, grandchildren and so on (_making her realize just how much of a blip her life is compared to theirs)._

_Seeing them together as brothers…she knows she made the right choice._

The thought of having children terrified her, the Petrova curse always in the back of her mind. It was silly and she knew it, (_doppelgangers only happen every few hundred years anyway_) but the fear was still there. It subsided when they welcomed Miranda Gray into the world and a few years later Jennifer Ann. She was relieved when they looked more like their father than her. Blonde and blue eyed, tall and thin.

_They are her life._

VV

"Girls, I'm home," Elena calls as she pushes the door closed with her shoulder, smiling when she hears their voices in the living room. The doorbell rings as she shrugs off her coat and she lays it over the bench just inside the foyer.

She pulls the door open, her smile fading and her eyes widening. "There's my girl."

"Klaus," she breathes. He looks the same (_obviously_) as he casually leans against the door frame, with an all dimple smile. He looks her over, the curves from two children, the grey hairs at her temples, the crows' feet and smile lines that have never graced the faces of the previous doppelgangers.

She suddenly feels _old_.

"So you do remember me." He gives her a coy smile as if they are old friends. "Can we come in?" It is only then that she notices the woman standing beside Klaus, their hands loosely clasped.

"You're here to turn her?"

"Not quite."

Elena frowns when she feels a tapping on her shoulder. "Excuse me," a deep voice says from behind her. A tall handsome young man slides between her and the door to stand next to Klaus and the woman. Her eyes widen in horror when he winks at Miranda and Jennifer who had followed him from the living room.

"Beautiful girls," Klaus says smiling at them.

"What do you want?" Elena asks, her tone harsh as she closes the door to block the girls from view.

"Just a small donation, love."

Elena gropes around the table behind the door for the white oak stake but the boy holds it up before slipping it in the inside pocket of his jacket. "This was not part of our deal, Klaus," she hisses.

"Come now, love that deal is over twenty years old now and you haven't been keeping up your end of the bargain. I believe it's time to make a new one."

VV

Elena watches the woman with Klaus as they sit in the back of a commandeered blood donation van while Klaus and the boy burn the stake. She is quite plain really (_nothing like Caroline_).

_She has to be compelled_, she reasons, _no one could really love Klaus_.

"I'm not compelled if that's what you're thinking." Kelsea glances up from the magazine she is reading, a small smirk on her lips.

"How can you be with Klaus knowing what he is capable of? Did he tell you what he did to me? My friends? He killed me, my Aunt Jenna, he turned Tyler into a Hybrid, Bonnie's mother and Alaric were turned into a vampires because of him, he stalked Caroline..." she trails off hoping the girl will see reason, gives names to make them real to her.

"I love him." Elena scoffs, crossing her arms over her chest as she shakes her head in disbelief. "Your one to talk, you loved Stefan Salvatore knowing what he had done."

"How-"

"Nik likes to reminisce. The twenties are still his favorite."

"Well that is-"

"Completely the same thing," Kelsea finishes for her. "Nik does not hide who he is or sugar coat what he does. He took me in, was in the room letting me break his hand as I gave birth to Henry, gave me and Henry a life neither of us could have ever had. I was on WIC when I met Nik, living with my drunken mother, no friends, no job, Henry's father had already split. Then I met Nik in a grocery store and everything changed. He gave me a home and a family, a crazy dysfunctional family, but a true family. I'm grateful and I fell in love with him. Nothing will change that."

Elena studies the woman in front of her and tries another tactic, mother to mother. "Why are you allowing Klaus to turn your son into a monster?"

"I love my son and this is what he wants. It was his choice," she pauses and catches Elena's eye. "Aren't we all monsters on the inside?"

The door opens before Elena can reply and Klaus walks in, Henry on his heels.

"How are my girls?"

Kelsea smiles as Henry sits next to her, throwing his arms over the back of her chair and stretching out as if he is not going to die in minutes, hours, days (_whenever it may be_).

Klaus checks the nearly full bag and crouches beside her. His fingers are warm and gentle as he holds her wrist to pull out the needle. He pats her arm and smiles. Elena jerks her hand out of his grip and yanks the sleeve of her shirt down, shifting back away from him. He grins.

"Don't be mean." Kelsea pushes Klaus out of the way and holds out her hand to help Elena up. When she doesn't take it, she turns back to Klaus, pulling him to her by his belt buckle.

"Do it while I take her home." It takes Elena a moment to realize what she is talking about and her eyes widen in horror. She kisses Klaus, hugs Henry tightly, and holds her hand out to Elena again, looking at her expectantly.

Elena takes her hand, stumbling a bit as she stands. "I'd offer you my blood but I know you won't take it." Kelsea smiles kindly as she leads her out of the van. "Hold tight."

They are on her front lawn in seconds. As Elena untangles herself from Kelsea she realized she is too old for this shit and staggers away from her towards the porch. She watches her for a moment, wanting to ask so many questions to try and_ understand_.

The familiar rumble of a truck alerts her that Matt is on his way home (_only a few seconds_). Kelsea gives her a knowing smile when she hears it too and speeds away before she is seen.

She hears a whispered 'thank you' on the breeze just as Matt pulls the truck in the driveway.

Now Elena is upset.


End file.
